Killer Colada: a Danger Cove Cocktail Mystery (15 page)

"I'm pretty sure these belonged to Jenna," I gasped.

"The missing Jenna?"

"Yeah."

"So how did they end up there?" Harvey glanced over to the dig site, a pensive expression on his face.

I swallowed down the lump in my throat. "Either she lost them, or she…" I licked my dry lips. "Or she could've been buried with them." My gaze turned to where his was resting.

"Oh bugger."

"Are you sure all the bones you've discovered so far in the cave are all from the 1850s?"

"Yes, they're definitely bones of antiquity."

I leaped to my feet. "I need to make sure these earrings match the bracelet I found in Jenna's room, just to be sure. I need to go back to Pandora's and check and then—oh damn!" I slapped a hand to my forehead. "Ruby and I took everything to the thrift store! I hope they haven't sold them already. Can I take this?" I wiggled the bag at Harvey.

"Yes, of course." He stood too.

"And…" My gaze drifted back to Carmen and the site. "Maybe you should stop work there for a while. Just in case it turns out to be a crime scene."

Harvey stood and nodded vigorously. "Let me know what you find out." He leaned over and kissed my cheek before I rushed off to my get my bike.

I cycled into town, feet pedaling like a whirlwind, hair whipping up behind me. It wasn't until I arrived outside the thrift store that I realized it was still too early for them to be open. There was a closed sign on the door and the opening times written on a piece of paper. I glanced at my watch. I still had half an hour to kill.

Ooops, maybe I shouldn't say kill. An image of someone digging a shallow grave into the cliffs on my land and callously throwing Jenna's lifeless body down there blasted into my head.

I hopped back on my bike and cycled to Veggie Tables, the health food café just down the road. I could sit there and wait.

There were two occupied tables when I pushed my way inside, and no queue. I ordered a soy chai latte and an organic zucchini muffin, taking them to a table near the window. I picked at the muffin but couldn't get it down my closed-up throat. I was finding it hard to get the image of Jenna lying underneath those cliffs, rotting away, out of my head. I was sure her body was down there somewhere near to where her earrings had been found. I thought about the residents who'd been out there searching for her all those years ago, and all the time, had she really been so close by?

I put the muffin back on the plate and pushed it away, shivering and sipping at my drink to warm up.

I glanced at my watch every two minutes and texted Ruby and Vernon to let them know my latest discovery, then carried on checking my watch. Ruby was teaching a yoga class in Seattle this morning, so she probably wouldn't get my message for a few hours yet. Vernon phoned me a few minutes later.

"Are you sure they're the same earrings?" he asked.

"As sure as I can be. I'm just waiting for the thrift store to open so I can get the bracelet back and compare them."

"Do you need any help?"

"No, I got this. Maybe you could head for the tavern in case I'm not back in time to open up?"

"No problem."

"Oh, and I got another threatening note." I told him what it said.

"Are you going to give it to Lester?"

"I don't know if it's worth it. I haven't heard anything back from him about the last one, so it's not exactly a priority for him, and he's not taking the threat seriously. He probably hasn't even bothered checking it for prints."

"How about if I get my contact in Seattle to run a fingerprint check on it?"

I rubbed my forehead. "Yeah, that would probably be better, although I guess if they find any, they'd need to have a suspect or someone already in their system to compare it to."

"Well, there's no harm in trying."

"Okay. I left it on the bar."

"I'll courier it over to him and see what happens." He hung up.

Finally, it was time for the store to open, and I cycled back up the road. I haphazardly leaned my bike against the glass window and swung open the door.

I breathed a huge sigh of relief as I spotted Sarah Pohoke behind a counter in the middle of the shop. She was a sweet old lady, the wife of my lawyer, Aaron, who was handling Bob's will and had seen me through the stressful aftermath when Elise and Carter had tried to contest it. Her tiny frame was almost lost behind the large box from which she was unfolding clothes. I recognized them as some of the ones I'd got from Jenna's wardrobe. Hopefully, that meant I wasn't too late.

She glanced up at me and smiled. "Hello, dear, nice to see you again. How've you been?"

"Not too bad, thanks to everything Aaron did to help me. How are you?"

"Keeping busy, as you can see." She chuckled. "Just because I'm old doesn't mean I can't still be useful. I volunteer here three days a week. Keeps me out of trouble!"

She put the skirt she was unfolding on the counter and smoothed it out. "Are you looking for something specific? Ladies' garments are all on this side." She swept her hand toward the left side of the shop.

"Actually, I dropped off some clothes and jewelry a couple of days ago with Ruby Fournier. We were helping to clear out Pandora Williams's house? But the shop was closed, so we left it on the back step. This is some of it right here." I nodded to the bag beside her.

"Oh, yes, that's right. Thank you for that, dear. I've been getting it ready for sale." She shook her head softly. "Terrible business, that. Poor Pandora. She had an awful time over the years."

"She did. Have you sold any of it yet? It's just that there was a silver charm bracelet in there, and I urgently need to get it back."

"Oh." Her fingertips went to her lips. "What a shame. I put the jewelry out on display yesterday, and I seem to remember someone coming in and buying that bracelet. Let's check." She walked toward a glass display shelf in the middle of the ladies' section. On it were various pieces: broaches, lockets, bracelets, earrings, necklaces. "Let me see…" She glanced around the items. "No, it's not here. I must've sold it."

I did a mental foot stamp. "I don't suppose you know who bought it, do you?"

She tapped her lips, head tilted, thinking. "It was very busy yesterday. We only had a few locals in, and the rest were tourists so…" She walked back to the counter. "I'll go through the receipts and check." She reached into the till and took out a receipt pad, flicking through the handwritten carbon entries. "I always like to write out the receipts. I'm a bit stuck in the old days." She glanced up and smiled before licking her finger and shuffling pages backward, studying her handwriting.

I tapped my foot and chewed on my bottom lip.

"Ah! Here it is. Oh, yes, I remember now." She turned the receipt pad toward me. In her scrawled handwriting was an entry for one silver bracelet with feather charms. I looked at the name at the top of the page: Kelly Parker.

Three cheers for the old days! I just hoped Kelly wasn't a tourist who'd already left town.

"Do you know who this person is?" I tapped the pad next to the name. "Are they local?"

"Oh, yes, dear. Kelly lives on Fletcher Way. She's always in and out of here and the antique stores looking for unusual one-off bargains. Look for the house with the tub in the garden, and that's hers."

"A tub?"

"Yes. She's got an old claw-foot bathtub she recycled into a planter for herbs. You can't miss it."

"Great, thanks so much!"

"You're welcome. Have a nice day," she called out.

I hopped back on my bike and headed toward Kelly's house. Halfway down Fletcher Way I spotted the tub. I leaned my bike against the mailbox and hurried up the front path, a waft of mint and cilantro drifting on the breeze. I knocked and waited.

Please be in. Please be in!

The door swung open, revealing a middle-aged woman with her hair tied back in a severe ponytail, dressed in a pair of yoga pants and a tank top.

"Hi, I'm sorry to bother you," I said. "My name's Hope Foster from the Smugglers' Tavern. Sarah Pohoke from the thrift store in town said you bought a silver charm bracelet there yesterday with feathers on it?"

Kelly nodded warily. "Yes, I did. Why?"

"Well, there's been some kind of mix up," I said, still not wanting to alert anyone to the fact that Jenna could be buried out there on top of the cliffs. What if I was wrong? "I was helping Ruby Fournier clear out Pandora Williams's things after her death, and that bracelet was put in the thrift bag by mistake. I urgently need to get it back." Everyone in town knew Ruby, and I was hoping her name might lend some credence to my bizarre request.

"I was going to give it to my daughter. She loves that kind of thing." Her brow furrowed with what looked like disappointment.

"I'm so sorry about this, but I really need to get it back. It's very important."

"But it's her birthday tomorrow, and she's been looking for a bracelet like this for ages."

"The bracelet is actually an old family heirloom that her son wants to keep. It's been in the family for generations, with great sentimental value." Ooops, another teensy lie slipped out.
Sorry, Universe! Please don't let my punishment be too harsh. It's all for a good reason.
"Like I said, it was given to the thrift store by mistake. And since it was my fault, I
really, really
need to get it back." I gave her my best pleading, puppy-dog eyes.

"I bought that bracelet in good faith."

"I'll give you whatever you paid for it." I pulled my wallet out of my pocket and fumbled inside for some bills. "How much was it?"

"Twenty dollars."

I pulled out a twenty.

"But then there was the trolley fee I took in town." She eyed my wallet. "And then I stopped and had lunch at the Lobster Pot."

I glanced up at her, eyes wide.

She shrugged casually. "And then I lost my trolley ticket, so I had to buy another one. It was an expensive trip. I'd say about sixty dollars should cover it."

I blinked at her.

"What? That bracelet is a collector's item, too. Very rare, you know."

"Sixty dollars?!" I was about to say that I couldn't really be expected to pay for all that, but I needed that bracelet back, so I pulled out the money and handed it toward her. "There you go."

She took the money, holding the bills up to the light and checking them with suspicion to make sure they were genuine.

Hey, you're the one who's scamming me!

Satisfied they were okay, she said "Wait here" and shut the door behind her.

I shuffled on the step until she came back. She handed me the bracelet in a small, clear bag.

Before she could change her mind or try to get more money out of me, I whipped it away. "Thanks."

"Hey, I got a nice antique broach the other day, if you want that too?" she called out as I hurried back down the path. "It'll be a bargain for you at a hundred dollars."

"No, thanks!" I called out and hopped onto my bike, butt (or fanny) on the saddle, feet resting on the road to keep me steady while I pulled the earring bag Harvey had given me out of my pocket. I pressed them together, comparing the silver feathers.

Yes, they were definitely from the same set. The earrings must have belonged to Jenna.

"I'll have to call Lester Marshall," I said to Vernon and Harvey, who were waiting for me at the entrance to the dig site when I arrived. Carmen was nowhere around. I passed the two bags to Vernon. "These earrings must've been Jenna's."

Vernon examined them and agreed, passing the bag to Harvey, saying, "It means you'll have to shut down the dig for now."

"Yep." Harvey ran a hand through his messy cropped hair.

I took out my cell phone and dialed Lester.

"Don't tell me you've found another dead body," Lester said to me, sarcasm oozing from his voice. "I'd hate to spend any time with you. I might end up with a knife in my back."

I didn't point out that if someone did stab him in the back, there would probably be a queue of suspects a mile long. "Um…not yet, but I think there could be one buried on my land."

"Really? And what makes you think that?" he drawled.

I told him about Carmen's discovery of what we believed were Jenna's earrings. "I think you need to get some crime scene people up here to check the area. If her earrings were buried underground, it's likely her body is here too."

I heard the sound of chewing on the other end, as if he was stuffing down his breakfast. "Well, I'll be the judge of that." More chewing. "Make sure that English guy doesn't start poking around down there anymore. I want all work stopped immediately. I'm just down the road in my car, so I'll be there soon."

I hung up and stared at the ground, a hollow feeling in my stomach. Vernon went to open up the tavern and left me standing with Harvey.

"Where's Carmen?" I asked.

"She's in Seattle, doing some cataloguing work of the apothecary bottles."

He turned to me. "Look, I know things have been so mad lately that we haven't got to spend much time with each other, and I'm sorry about that."

"Me too." I reached for his hand and squeezed it.

He lifted my hand, staring down at it. "And you know…Carmen. Well, what I was trying to tell you the other night was—"

"Step away from my crime scene!" Lester barked out, appearing from behind us. We turned and watched him swagger toward us, waving his hands around wildly like he was swatting at a swarm of bees.

I rolled my eyes at Harvey and then turned to Lester. "But we need to show you some things first, before you get started."

Lester's hand went to his hip. He was about to say something, when the crime scene vehicle pulled up in the car park and a couple of guys unloaded some equipment. Lester pointed at us. "Don't move an inch."

"But you just told us to step away," Harvey said. "Do you want us to move or not?"

"Not." Lester walked toward the officers, spoke to them briefly, then headed back our way with them in tow. "Now, show us exactly where you discovered the earrings and how you came to find them."

"Well, as you know, I've been recovering some ancient artifacts relating to the
Ocean's Revenge
." Harvey pointed to the entrance of the cave in the ground. "My associate and I have found several gold and silver coins and other items dating back to the 1850s, along with the skeletal remains of who we believe to be smugglers working on the ship at the time it sank."

"You've already found skeletons?" one of the crime scene guys asked.

"Yes. Everything we've already excavated is at University of Washington's research department in Seattle and has been fully catalogued there. I'm working closely with them. But what we'd found so far is consistent with bones that have been in the ground for a hundred and fifty odd years. But then yesterday, my colleague, Carmen, found this." He handed Lester the bag of earrings. "But these have a more modern hallmark. Probably only thirty years old."

"And I recognized the style from Jenna's room in Pandora's house," I said. "She'd kept all her daughter's things, and there was a matching bracelet."

Harvey handed him the second bag. "Part of the ground here has collapsed, so it's possible that the earrings were in the ground somewhere near to the hidden cave entrance and have worked their way into the cave over the years because of tree roots that used to be here."

Lester handed the bags to one of the crime scene guys, who put them both in a clear plastic bag and sealed them. "Right." He pointed at Harvey. "You can wait here for a while in case we need to question you about anything else you've been doing on site." He jerked a thumb at me. "And you can go and do whatever it is you do when you're not discovering dead bodies."

I left them to it and busied myself in the bar to avoid looking out of the window at what they were doing. Was Jenna really out there? Part of me hoped she was. At least that way there would finally be some kind of closure. But it would come too late for Pandora. And the only one left to mourn her was Ian, who could be a murderer, too. Who could even have killed Jenna himself. Another part of me wished that Jenna was somewhere far away from here, living her life to the full. Maybe she really had run away and started a new life. Maybe she was happy. Had children. A husband. A career. But as soon as the thought flitted into my head, it was gone again. Deep in my heart I knew that wasn't true. And a while later so did everyone else.