Tapas, Carrot Cake and a Corpse (A Charlotte Denver Cozy Mystery Book 1) (10 page)

“Anyway, when I found out that Blake was here, I had to do something about it, so I followed him to his hotel to ask him to leave us alone.  He was so smug – he laughed in my face and told me that Gabe would never love me like he loved him.  He kept on taunting me with the pendant that Gabe gave him – he showed me the picture inside it and said that he’d never stop following us until he’d taken Gabe away from me.  I was so angry, I ripped it from his neck and ran off with it.  Don’t look so surprised, I could outrun any of you any day.  Anyway, I threw it in the sea.  I didn’t think I’d ever see it again.”

She paused and took a sip of water. 

“You see, Blake never forgave Gabe for marrying me, and he never forgave me for taking Gabe away from him.”  She turned back to Gabe.  “Why did you have to kill him?” she asked.  “We could have worked things out – we could have made him understand that you didn’t want to see him anymore.”

Gabe lifted his head and looked at her in disbelief.   

“’Worked things out?’” he said.  “’Didn’t want to see him anymore?’”  You
stupid
woman – the reason I killed Blake is because I
couldn’t
be with him, not because I didn’t
want
to be with him.  Every time I saw him, but had to keep my distance, I felt like my heart had been torn out of my chest.  I loved him so much, but I couldn’t risk people finding out about him.  It would have ruined my life.” 

He gave a bitter laugh.  “And all this time, you’ve been wondering how Blake found us, wherever we were?  It was because I was calling him, Samantha,
telling
him where we were.  I couldn’t bear the thought of not seeing him for so long.” 

He sighed heavily, struggling to keep control of his emotions.  “So you’ll understand why the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do was leave him on the boat to die alone.  And do you know what, Samantha?”  He put his face close to his wife’s.  “I will hate you for that until the day I die.  The only reason I didn’t get rid of the weed killer and the syringe was because I was saving them for you.”  He gave her a twisted smile.  “I hid my feelings, well, don’t you think?”

Samantha burst into tears again and sobbed as Ava, Harriett and Betty rushed to coo round and comfort her like mother hens. 

Gabe stood up and turned to face Nathan.  He knew what was coming.   

Nathan stepped towards him and took his handcuffs out of his pocket.  “Gabe Driscoll, I am arresting you on suspicion of the murder of Blake Hamilton ....” he snapped the handcuffs onto Gabe’s wrists behind his back as he continued with the caution. 

Nathan was about to escort Gabe to the police car, when he said, “Humour me for a moment, if you will, Chief Inspector.  Tell me, what led you to find the evidence I’d hidden?”

“Well,” said Nathan.  “When you came back to the boat on the morning of the murder, the nails on one of your hands were dirty.  Not unusual for some men, you might say, but on your perfectly-manicured hands, they stuck out a mile.  In itself, that wasn’t enough to lead us to you, but when you struck up such a close friendship with Tom, that got us thinking.  After that, it was only a matter of time before everything fell into place. 

“Tom’s hanging baskets were the perfect place to hide any incriminating evidence, explaining the dirt under your fingernails, and in befriending Tom, you gave yourself the perfect excuse to access them without arousing suspicion.  A very clever hiding place, if I may say so, Mr. Driscoll – who ever would have thought of looking on Tom’s property for concealed evidence? 

“If you’d only gone to the trouble of cleaning your nails after you’d hidden the bag, you could have got away, quite literally, with murder.  Remember, it’s often the smallest details that leave the biggest clues.” 

He caught Charlotte’s eye and winked.

“So anyway, are you free for dinner sometime next week?  I know you have to work it around your shifts, but any day is OK with me,” Charlotte asked Nathan.

“Sounds good - how about Friday night?  I’m not working, and you’re not working the next day, so we can be grown-ups and stay out late,” she heard the grin in his voice. 

“Actually, I, er, meant dinner at, um, my place.  I’ll cook.” 
Why am I getting flustered?
  She scolded herself. 
I’ve cooked dinner for Nathan a hundred times.

“Oh, OK.  That sounds even better … I’ll bring the wine and beer.  Listen, gotta go.  Speak to you soon.”

Charlotte hung up, let out the breath she hadn’t realised she’d been holding, and smiled.

ººººººº

“That was the best meal I’ve had in a very long time – thank you.” Nathan put his cutlery down on his plate and sat back in his chair.  He brushed his hair back off his face and looked intently at Charlotte.

“Shall we take the wine and go and sit outside?  It’s so warm,” she said, starting to feel flustered again, as she had every time he’d looked at her that evening for longer than five seconds.

“Sure.  I’ll bring the bottle,” Nathan followed close behind her and pulled out one of the big, wooden garden chairs for her to sit on.

“Thanks,” she took the bottle from him and topped up her glass. 
Oh boy, I’m going to need this,
she thought and took a big gulp. 

She was just about to launch into her prepared speech, when Nathan asked, “Is everything OK?”

It threw her a little off-course.  “Um, yes, of course.  Why shouldn’t it be?”

“Well, it’s like you’ve been trying to say something all evening, but then decide not to.”  Nathan looked at her a little quizzically.  “
Have
you been trying to say something?”

“Oh, er, well, yes I have, actually,” Charlotte could feel herself blushing like a tomato now.  “Oh damn it!  Look, Nathan - I’m just going to say it, and hope it doesn’t ruin our friendship, OK?  Please don’t interrupt me, because it’s going to be really hard for me to say this.” 

She took a deep breath. 

“OK … when I found out that you weren’t going out with Lucy Sanderson, I was really pleased.  Happy, in fact.”  She stole a glance at him and saw that he was staring at her with an amused look on his face.  She cleared her throat, and carried on.  “So, anyway, um, I was really pleased, because I thought it might be nice if you were going out with
me
.” 

Damn!  That didn’t come out at all like I’d planned it – why on earth did I ever think this was a good idea? 

“And I’m so embarrassed now, I can’t even look at you,” she said, miserably and stood up to turn away from him. 

Nathan put his glass down and went over to stand behind her.  He pulled her round gently to face him, but she avoided his gaze, convinced that it would be full of pity … pity because she wanted something with him that he would never want with her. 

He’s going to try and let me down gently, I know he is,
she thought.

“Charlotte, will you look at me,” he said, gently pulling her chin up with his finger.  “I can’t talk to you about this unless you look at me.”

She looked at him and saw that his face was serious now.

“Charlotte, you shouldn’t have said that,” he told her.

Great
, she thought, dejectedly. 
I’ve really messed things up between us now.

Nathan continued.  “
You
shouldn’t have said that, because
I
should have said it.  I should have said it ages ago – God knows, I’ve wanted to – but I haven’t had the guts.  I couldn’t bear to think that if I told you how I felt, it would ruin our friendship.”

What? 
Charlotte’s mouth dropped open as the realization of what Nathan was telling her sunk in.  She began to smile.  She began to laugh.

“You’re not just saying that to make me happy?” she said, clutching onto his hands.

“Well, I
hope
it makes you happy, but no, I’m not
just
saying it because of that,” he grinned.

She flung her arms around him and buried her face in the crook of his neck.  She never wanted to let go.

He gently pushed her away from him to kiss her softly, and she felt fireworks go off in her chest.  It had been so long since anyone had kissed her, she thought her knees were going to give way.

When they came up for air, she took his hand and said, “Shall we go inside?”

“I hope you’re not going to corrupt me?” he said, fixing her with a stern look.  “I
am
an officer of the law, you know.”

“Well, if I do, Chief Inspector … you’ll just have to put me in handcuffs,” she laughed as he chased her into the house.

On the day that would have been Charlotte’s parents’ 40
th
wedding anniversary, a fishing boat left the marina just before dusk. 

On board were Garrett, Laura, Jess, Ava, Harriett, Betty, Tom, Nathan, and Charlotte. 

After all that had happened, Charlotte realised that she didn’t want to keep her parents’ ashes at home any more.  She wanted them to be scattered out at sea, for them to be free to drift, mingle and whirl with the tide, not be confined to a ceramic pot. 

Her life was taking a new direction now.  With Nathan, she was happier than she’d been in years – she hadn’t realised how much she’d wanted someone in her life to love, and to love her, and she couldn’t have wished for a better partner than the man who was standing at her side. 

As for the others, they were like family –
true
family, not a family that you had but never spoke to – but a real, loving, strong family.  She loved every single one of them with all her heart.

As the sun began to set, Garrett dropped anchor and the boat came to a stop, bobbing gently on the calm sea.  The air was still, and except for the lapping of the water against the hull, there was not a sound to be heard.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

Charlotte had been ready for this ever since she’d first talked to Garrett about it two months ago, but now it was time, she wasn’t so sure.

“Oh, um, I don’t know …” she felt a lump rise in her throat and gulped it down.  She didn’t want to cry – she wanted this to be a joyful occasion.

Nathan put his arms around her and she snuggled into his chest.  “You don’t have to do this, you know,” he whispered.  “No-one will care if we just turn the boat around and go back home.”

“
I’ll
care … no, no, I want to do it,” she insisted, and pulled away from him.  She lifted one of the ceramic urns from the deck and took off the lid.  She closed her eyes and offered up a few, silent words of prayer before upturning the urn and emptying the contents into the sea.  Then she did the same with the other one. 

She gulped again and squeezed her eyes tight shut. 
Don’t cry, don’t cry
, she told herself. 

Garrett stepped forward and recited a short blessing.  As he spoke, his gruff voice cracked on the last line of the verse.

“To Molly and Scott …

May your spirits soar high and free,

May your love be ever present,

May we keep you always in our hearts,

And may God keep you close in His kingdom.

God bless you both.”

He hugged Charlotte before stepping back and blinking hard.  Like her, he hadn’t realised how emotional this moment would be.

“Here,” Nathan was holding the box of lilies that Charlotte had collected from the florist that morning, “take one.”

She took a flower and tossed it down onto the water, and then everyone else did the same before crowding round her and enveloping her in a huge, loving, group hug. 

The tears fell freely now and she didn’t try to stop them.  She took a deep breath in and let it out slowly, and felt all her tension melt away. 

As the sun began to dip below the horizon, Charlotte looked down at the flowers floating on the water and whispered, “I love you forever, Mum and Dad – sleep tight, both of you.”

She watched the light fade, and couldn’t think of a more perfect way to end that chapter of her life and, as Nathan planted a gentle kiss on her lips, a better way to begin the next. 

Turning to all her friends, she smiled and said, “Let’s go home.”

The End

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Fudge Cake, Felony and a Funeral’
is published.

A SELECTION OF RECIPES FROM
TAPAS, CARROT CAKE AND A CORPSE

Serves 4 as tapas or 2 as a light lunch

INGREDIENTS

8 large raw prawns - deveined, but with the tail left on

3 tablespoons olive oil

Chopped flat leaf parsley, to serve

FOR THE SAUCE

3 tablespoons ketchup

1 tablespoon superfine sugar

1 teaspoon white wine
or
apple cider vinegar

1 smallish, fresh red chilli, finely chopped
or
½ teaspoon chilli flakes

2 or 3 large garlic cloves (depending on how much you like garlic!) peeled and crushed

METHOD

1. Mix all the sauce ingredients together in a bowl and put to one side.
   
2. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over a medium heat and add the prawns.  Cook until they are pink throughout, turning once – how long this takes will depend on the size of the prawns.
   
3. About a minute before the prawns have finished cooking, add the sauce to the pan and cook everything together for the last minute. 
   
4. Tip into a serving dish and sprinkle with fresh, flat leaf parsley. 
   
5. Serve with crusty bread