Chloe Cook Cozy Mystery Bundle Page 6

  “Let’s say you’re right. How are you going to get someone to confess to murder?”

  “The detective said it himself; people say the craziest things when they’re backed into a corner.”

  “Tell me about it. One of my ex-boyfriend’s admitted that he wet the bed until he was twelve after being backed into a corner,” Shannon said.

  Chloe grimaced. “That’s too much information.”

  Shannon smiled through her teeth. “Way too much, even now. The point is, backing people into a corner can have all kinds of interesting results. But be careful, things can get hairy when you confront people.”

  “I’m a saleswoman. I can talk my way into and out of almost anything.”

  “What if this time you can’t?”

  “Then those self-defense classes I took a few years ago will come in awfully handy.”

  “You’re prepared for everything, aren’t you?” Shannon asked.

  “I hope so.”

  “Want some pie for the road?”

  “You sure know my weakness.”

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” Shannon said.

  “One thing is for sure. When this case is over, there will be a very unpleasant date with my treadmill in my future,” Chloe replied.

  ***

  As she got ready to dive into the case, Chloe knew she had her hands full. Finding the killer would take some serious sleuthing. There was a lot working against her. For one, she was at best a gumshoe. In addition, thus far the killer had outsmarted professional detectives.

  Despite that, Chloe had to crack this case. No matter how long the odds were, she needed to find a way. She couldn’t let her friend go to jail for a crime she didn’t commit.

  It was time to buckle down. Before she did any investigating, she had to straighten things up in her mind. There were so many suspects to juggle, all with equally strong reasons to want Marty out of the picture.

  Chloe went through them one by one. She started with Delia Diamond. Marty’s wife had a number of motives for wanting him dead. The obvious one was that he was a lying cheater that threw away over twenty years of marriage to jump into bed with a receptionist half his age. If that wasn’t enough when Delia threatened divorce, Marty promised a long, contentious battle in divorce court. Now that her husband was dead, Delia stood to inherit the lion’s share of his fortune. If anything, it seemed like Delia’s life was better with her husband out of the picture. But was Delia the beneficiary of someone else’s dirty work, or was she Marty’s real killer?

  Next on the list of suspects was Marty’s son Stewart Diamond. Stewart had plenty of motive as well. To start, when Stewart found out about his father’s affair, he immediately went to comfort his mother while giving his father a glaring look of disapproval. In addition, his father had put him in a no-win situation when it came to his relationship. Either Stewart dumped his girlfriend Lucy or his father would take him out of his will. With Marty out of the picture, however, Stewart would be able to keep both his girlfriend and his inheritance. Was that motive enough to kill for?

  Stewart’s girlfriend Lucy Lemke was next on the list. Lucy had also been put into a no-win situation as well. Thanks to Marty’s ultimatum, she could find herself dumped in favor of her boyfriend looking to hold onto his inheritance. There was more. Lucy’s father Patrick had a history with Marty. When a pile of mattresses fell on Patrick in the mattress mart warehouse, Patrick tried to sue for fair compensation. Marty’s lawyer made sure Patrick go the lowest settlement possible. Patrick and Lucy Lemke had been holding a grudge ever since. Was that grudge bitter enough to drive Lucy to commit murder?

  Then there was Jennifer Carter. Jennifer wasn’t just Marty’s receptionist at the mattress mart, she was also his scorned mistress. Jennifer had the look of a woman that had designs on sleeping her way to the top. But after their affair came out at the barbecue yesterday, it became clear that Jennifer had serious feelings for Marty. So much so that when Marty told his wife he wanted to try and make their marriage work for business reasons, Jennifer went into a rage. The question is, how far did that anger take her?

  Speaking of a rage, Walter Gold had plenty of it to spare. To start, Walter was Marty’s chief rival in the mattress game. When it came to selling the most mattresses, there was no love lost between them. There was a deeper hatred that fueled their rivalry. Walter was the one to expose the affair between Marty and Jennifer to Marty’s wife. In retaliation, Marty threatened to release the Candice McDowell story to the papers. With the scandal of Walter’s illegitimate daughter splashed all over the news, clearly Marty had followed up on his threat. Marty ruined Walter’s marriage and reputation with the story. Did Walter kill Marty to retaliate?

  Finally, there was the mystery man, Jason Diamond. Jason was the wild card in this case. Chloe found out yesterday that he was Marty’s nephew. Then this morning, Chloe discovered Jason was an ex-convict. Jason did not have a clear motive for wanting Marty dead. What he did have was a rap sheet. Chloe knew that if someone had committed a crime in the past, it wasn’t too much of a leap to assume that they could commit another crime if given the chance. Did it happen this time?

  Chloe had plenty of questions, but very few answers. By the end of the day, she was hoping that would change. In the meantime, there was plenty of work to do.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chloe’s first stop was the scene of the crime. She wanted to see if maybe the police missed something during their investigation. Any clues Chloe could find were welcome at this point. Chloe had no idea what, if anything, she’d be able to turn up at the crime scene, but she had to try.

  As Chloe pulled up to the parking lot of Marty’s Mattress Mart, the police were gone. The question was, had anything important been left behind? Before she had a chance to poke around, she saw Jason Diamond, the mystery man and ex-convict, on the other side of the parking lot.

  Jason was rooting through the dumpster that was adjacent to the back door of the mattress mart. How curious to find one of the murder suspects back at the scene of the crime skulking around. All kinds of red flags went off in Chloe’s mind. This was highly suspicious. Not to mention quite bold.

  Chloe had plenty of questions for Jason to begin with. Suddenly she had even more. She also had an unexpected opportunity here. If she played her cards right, she could sneak up behind him and corner him.

  Chloe did her best to keep as quiet as possible as she approached Jason on the other end of the parking lot. All her efforts ended up being for not however, as Jason suddenly started looking around, as paranoid as could be.

  With that, Chloe’s element of surprise was gone. The moment Jason spotted her, his eyes opened wide.

  There was no cornering him now. Chloe had to try and make her words count.

  “Funny running into you here. Did you leave something behind last night?” she asked.

  Instead of answering, Jason made a break for it, fleeing from the scene.

  That was not the response she’d anticipated. She expected him to at least say something. Jason meanwhile seemed content to let his feet do the talking for him.

  Chloe said the first thing that came to her mind. “Hey, where do you think you’re going?”

  It was incredible. All of a sudden, Jason couldn’t wait to put as much distance between himself and the scene of the crime as possible. The man went into a full-on sprint.

  Chloe began to run after him, shouting at him as she tailed him.

  “I’m talking to you. You can run, but you can’t hide.”

  Chloe was no match for Jason’s speed. Even if she had running shoes on, it wouldn’t be enough to catch up with him. Realizing how fruitless her pursuit was, she decided to return to the crime scene and resolved to catch up with him later.

  ***

  When she got back to the parking lot, Chloe headed directly for the dumpster. Talk about a strange moment in her life. Never before had Chloe been in such a hurry to get to a dumpster. Ah, the things she did to exo
nerate her friend from a murder charge.

  Unfortunately, after five minutes of rooting around, she didn’t find anything. What a raw deal. There she was, literally rummaging around in trash, and she had nothing to show for it. Chloe wasn’t sure if that was because Jason had found what he was looking for and pocketed it before he fled the scene. There was also the possibility that the police had dug up every shred of evidence available from the crime scene. The last option was that there was nothing of value left to find in that dumpster in the first place. Chloe had no idea which was the truth.

  The rest of the parking lot provided no answers either. Despite nearly twenty minutes of scouring, Chloe ended up completely empty-handed. Yikes. This was not the best start to her sleuthing career.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Just as Chloe was ready to leave the crime scene, she got a phone call from her friend.

  “Kristina, I didn’t expect to hear from you this soon,” Chloe said, into the phone.

  “Time is not exactly on my side,” Kristina replied.

  “So, how has the internet been treating you?”

  “Very well.”

  “That’s nice to hear. You must have caught it on a good day.”

  “By the way, when this is over, remind me to delete my social media accounts.”

  “Any particular reason why?” Chloe asked.

  “Looking back, I can’t believe some of the things I’ve posted,” Kristina replied.

  Chloe laughed. “If it makes you feel any better, you’re not the first person to ever say that.”

  “I’m serious. The internet knows too much about me.”

  “Kristina, you’re supposed to be digging up dirt on the other suspects.”

  “I’ve been doing that as well. It turns out the internet knows even more about those suspects, and now so do I.”

  “What do you have for me?” Chloe asked.

  “To start, the address of Jason Diamond’s apartment,” Kristina revealed.

  While Kristina was talking, Chloe heard arguing coming from the Mattress Mart.

  Chloe put her phone conversation on hold and focused on what was going on at the Mattress Mart. She saw Marty’s mistress, Jennifer Carter, rush out the front door looking completely outraged. Following closely behind her was Marty’s wife, Delia Diamond.

  Delia scolded Jennifer.

  “That’s right, who got the better of who now?” Delia asked.

  Jennifer then turned around and glared at Delia.

  “You’re an even bigger witch than Marty said you were. No wonder he was so happy when I came into his life,” Jennifer taunted.

  Delia blew her top. “Get out of here, and don’t ever come back.”

  “Fire me all you want. I’ll take you to court for wrongful termination,” Jennifer insisted.

  “Do that and I’ll crush you. No one gets the best of Delia Diamond.”

  Jennifer then huffed away to her car.

  Delia stared daggers into Jennifer’s back the entire time.

  Meanwhile, back in the parking lot, Chloe whispered into her phone. “Text me Walter’s address.”

  “Why don’t you just write it down now?” Kristina asked, over the phone.

  “Because I have Delia Diamond in my sights,” Chloe answered.

  “Give her the goods,” Kristina insisted.

  ***

  With Delia Diamond so focused on glaring at Jennifer Carter, it gave Chloe the perfect opportunity to catch her off guard. Delia didn’t even notice Chloe approaching.

  “Mrs. Diamond,” Chloe said.

  Delia clutched her chest, completely startled.

  “What are you doing, sneaking up on me like that? You scared me half to death.”

  “I’m sorry about that. There’s been enough death in your family recently.”

  Delia was very combative. “What do you know about that?”

  “I just wanted to share my condolences. I’m very sorry for your loss.”

  Delia’s mood didn’t soften in the least. She was short with Chloe again. “Who are you? More importantly, how did you know my husband?”

  With all that happened at the barbecue yesterday, she apparently didn’t see Chloe. That could work to Chloe’s advantage.

  “Don’t worry, I wasn’t sleeping with your husband. It seemed like Jennifer Carter had the market cornered on that,” Chloe said.

  Delia went into a rage. “Why would you bring that up?”

  The reason was simple. People tended to get careless with their words the more emotional they became. So if Chloe was able to push Delia to the emotional brink, maybe Delia would let something slip out.

  There was a flip side to that coin. Intentionally pushing people’s buttons could lead to explosive and possibly dangerous results. Delia was a murder suspect after all. If she had killed her husband, who was to say she wouldn’t do the same again? Chloe had to take that chance.

  Chloe steamrolled right by Delia’s question.

  “I can’t help but notice how quickly you fired Jennifer,” Chloe said.

  “It’s my company. I can do what I want,” Delia barked.

  “That’s right. With your husband dead, you inherit his company.”

  “His company? I was there with him every step of the way, through the good, the bad, and the very ugly. The company has always been just as much mine.”

  Chloe managed to rile Delia up even more than she expected. Delia practically flew off the handle. Things were getting explosive. Maybe a little too much so. Delia was full of rage. Chloe would have to proceed with caution.

  At the same time, it turned out Delia wasn’t quite done yet. “How dare you come to my business and insult me. I should…”

  She stopped herself before going completely off the deep end.

  Chloe tried to egg her on. “You should what?”

  Delia flipped the script. “You should be going. I have work to do.”

  Delia turned around to go back into the building.

  Chloe saw her chance slipping away. She had to do something.

  “Don’t you have something better to do than work on a day like this? Like maybe planning your husband’s funeral arrangements?”

  That got Delia’s attention like never before. She whirled around in a rage. “Who do you think you are?”

  “I’m just a woman who is trying to find your husband’s killer.”

  Delia looked closer at Chloe. “Wait a minute. You were part of the lineup this morning.”

  Chloe nodded. “I’m the only one with a verifiable alibi, unlike you. Not only is your alibi flimsy, but you have plenty of motive for wanting your husband dead.”

  “Not that it’s any of your business, but I didn’t kill him.”

  “That’s right. You were at home. What did you do all night?”

  “I answered the police’s questions. I don’t have to answer yours,” Delia insisted.

  “You should,” Chloe reasoned.

  Delia folded her arms. “Why?”

  “Your answers weren’t enough for the police to take you off their list of suspects. If you truly didn’t do it, you should help me bring the killer to justice.”

  “I’m going to leave this to the professionals.”

  “There’s no reason to be this evasive unless you have something to hide. And let me tell you, secrets have a way of coming out eventually,” Chloe said.

  “If you want to find the killer, you should be talking to Jennifer Carter right now,” Delia suggested.

  “What makes you so sure of that?”

  “Some people are just bad apples, and she’s rotten to the core.”

  That kind of statement begged for a follow-up.

  Just as Chloe opened her mouth to reply, Delia shut her down.

  “I have to get back to work now,” Delia said.

  Delia then closed the front door of the Mattress Mart and locked it before Chloe was able to get a sentence out.

  Chloe sighed and vented to herself. “That c
ould have gone much better.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chloe decided to go after Jennifer Carter next. Not only had Delia Diamond thrown her under the bus, but after being recently fired, Jennifer was most likely an emotional mess. That made it the perfect time to try and wring information out of her.

  Chloe was hoping she wouldn’t have to confront Jennifer at home. That was the worst case scenario. So many things could go wrong. First, Jennifer could just refuse to answer her door. Even if she did open up, at the first sign of trouble she could slam the door in Chloe’s face.

  Luckily, Kristina Miller was able to track down on social media that Jennifer was at her favorite java joint in Dennis Port. This was a perfect set up for Chloe. A public place was ideal to question Jennifer. Even more, it would allow Chloe to sneak up on Jennifer.

  When Chloe arrived at Java Jake’s, she did a quick scan of the place. It was hopping. Almost every table was full. Most of the customers were busy sipping their lattes with their heads buried in their smartphones or laptops. Everyone was busy talking, just to their electronic devices instead of each other.

  Jennifer was no different. She was so focused on her laptop that she didn’t notice Chloe coming up behind her. Chloe peeked over Jennifer’s shoulder and saw a job site open on Jennifer’s laptop. As she looked at the other tabs on Jennifer’s internet browser, she saw one for a law office, as well as her social media profile page.

  “Looking for a job, huh?” Chloe asked.

  Jennifer slammed her laptop shut and turned to Chloe.

  “Were you just looking at my screen?” Jennifer snapped.

  “What’s the matter? Do you have something to hide?” Chloe asked.

  Jennifer glared. “How rude.”

  “This is a public place. If you don’t want things to be seen, you should hide them better.”