Gazpacho Murder (The Darling Deli Series Book 25) Read online

  David, who was trained in first aid, rushed forward. Moira hung back, not wanting to get in his way. She bit her lip, watching anxiously as he knelt next to the still form, pressing his ear to the other man’s chest.

  “Nothing,” he said after a moment. “There was only one shot, and it looks like it went directly through his heart.”

  “He’s dead?”

  “Yes.”

  Moira took a shaky breath. Yes, that was the person who had been breaking into her friend’s house, but she didn’t think that he deserved to die, not like this.

  “I’m going to take the ski mask off,” David said after a moment. “The paramedics will do it anyway as soon as they get here. It doesn’t seem right to leave him lying here like this.”

  Moira watched as he carefully pulled the black mask over the person’s head. Her gut feeling had been right – it was a man. He looked to be in his early twenties or late teens, and she was sure she had seen him around somewhere before. If he was a local, chances were he had stopped in at the deli in the past.

  “This is terrible,” she whispered. “Why do you think his partner shot him?”

  “I have no idea,” David said honestly. “I don’t think we’re going to get any answers anytime soon. This is going to be a long night.”

  It wasn’t long before they heard the sound of the approaching sirens. Moira left the murder scene to stand outside. When she saw the ambulance approaching, she waved it down, making sure that they found the right house. She waited on the doorstep while the paramedics rushed in. Detective Jefferson arrived at the scene a few moments later. He spotted her immediately and walked over to talk with her.

  “I was worried when I heard that we got a call from you,” he said. “Is David okay?”

  “He’s fine,” she said. “Well, he got punched in the face, but compared to the gunshot victim, he’s doing great. I’m sorry, I probably didn’t give a very clear explanation of what was going on to the dispatcher when I called. Everything happened so fast.”

  “It’s okay,” he assured her. “If you’re going to be all right to wait out here, I’ll go in and do a preliminary examination of the crime scene, then I’ll talk to you and David and get statements from both of you.”

  “I’ll wait,” she said. “It’s okay if I sit in the car?”

  “Of course. I’ll be out soon and then we can get this all straightened out.”

  Moira knew that they were lucky that Detective Jefferson knew them both so well. David was well known in the local area as a private investigator, and Moira and Detective Jefferson had been friends for the past couple of years. If anyone else had stumbled onto a murder scene like they had, they would likely have been treated as suspects. As it was, she knew that it would be hours before they were able to leave for the comfort of their own beds.

  While Moira waited, she decided to call Martha. She was certain that the police would be contacting her friend soon enough, but she thought that the other one might prefer to hear from her first. She didn’t know what this would mean for her friend. How soon would she be able to return to her house? Would she even want to, knowing that one of the burglars had been killed inside, and the other was still out there?

  A knock on the window startled her. She put down her phone, realizing that she had been so lost in thought that she hadn’t even begun to dial the number, and looked outside to see Detective Jefferson standing by the car. He gestured for her to follow him. Untangling herself from the blanket, Moira got out of the comparatively warm car and followed him toward the house, where there were a pair of police cruisers with their flashing lights on.

  While the forensics team worked inside the house — the ambulance was already gone, and Moira was guessing that it had taken the body — Detective Jefferson began to question her and David.

  “Start at the beginning. What are the two of you doing here?”

  Moira took this question. “My friend, Martha — you’ve met her — has been experiencing some strange things in her house lately. She says a few her belongings have gone missing, and oftentimes when she gets back from a trip, she’ll find that some of her things have been rearranged. She went to David for help, and he agreed to watch her house tonight, since she’s out of town. I went along with him just to keep him company.”

  “She didn’t think to take any of this to the police?”

  “No… I don’t think that she really believed that there was any foul play at work here. I think she just wanted David to check it out for her own peace of mind.”

  “Was there anyone here when you got here?”

  “No,” Moira said. “The two people in the SUV didn’t show up until later.”

  David took over the story at that point, telling the detective about the two masked men, the gunshot, and the short fight with the man who had fled. He had already been examined by the paramedics, and Moira had been glad to hear that his nose was not broken. Whoever had thrown that punch had either been inexperienced, or had simply not been able to get a good hit.

  Detective Jefferson took notes, and when they were done with their story, he told them both that they were free to go. “It’s not like I don’t know where to find you if I have any more questions,” he said. “One more thing. Did either of you manage to get a video or photo of the vehicle in question?”

  “No, it all happened too fast,” Moira said. I should have thought of that, she thought, annoyed at herself. Instead, she had simply watched the scene unfold, and had done nothing.

  “Do you think your officers will have any luck catching him?” David asked.

  “I don’t want to sound pessimistic, but realistically I’m doubtful. The description you gave me of the vehicle — a darkly colored SUV of unknown make and model — could fit any number of vehicles in the area. If there was some description of the driver we could go on, it might be a different story, but right now my men have very little to work with. I’m not blaming you; I understand that it was dark out and your concern was with the gunshot victim inside, but it doesn’t change the facts.”

  “I understand,” David said. “If there’s anything I can do to help, just let me know.”

  “I will,” the detective said. “For now, just go home and get some rest, both of you. With any luck, something will come back to you in the morning.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  * * *

  “Moira, I can’t thank you enough.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” the deli owner said to her friend. “You’re welcome to stay here for as long as you need to. I hope you don’t mind sharing the guest bedroom with a cat.”

  “Of course not. And thanks for letting Diamond stay too. I wouldn’t have been able to take her with me if I had to stay in a hotel. She would have had to go to a kennel.”

  “Don’t be silly, even if you decided not to stay here, Diamond wouldn’t have had to go to a kennel. She’s more than welcome to stay with me any time. You know that.”

  “I suppose I do.” Martha shook her head. “I’m just still so shocked. When I thought that something was going on, I never imagined it would be something like this. If I had known that there would be men with guns there, I never would have asked David to take the case.”

  “Don’t blame yourself, you couldn’t have known,” Moira said. “It’s his job. Neither of us got hurt. I just wish that I would have thought to take a photo of the vehicle. I felt so useless just sitting there.”

  She and Martha were in the kitchen together at Moira’s house. It was the day after the murder, and Martha had just been escorted to her house by the police so that she could grab some basic necessities to take with her. Neither of them knew how long it would be until she could return home. The police were still busy at the house, dusting it for prints and examining every nook and cranny for any hint that might tell them who the second burglar was.

  The deli owner was exhausted. She and David had been up late the night before. Even once they had made it home, they hadn’t managed to fall a
sleep for hours. Moira kept running through the evening in her head, and she and David had stayed up into the early hours of the morning talking about what had happened.

  She had called her friend as soon as she had woken up, and as soon as she had heard that Martha wouldn’t be able to return home for a few days, she had offered to let her friend stay with her. She hadn’t had a chance to talk to her husband about it, but she was certain that he would be okay with it. Neither of them were the type to turn away a friend in need, and Moira couldn’t help but feel just a little bit responsible for how things had turned out.

  “Moira?”

  “Sorry, what did you say?” the deli owner asked. She had been so lost in thought she had missed what her friend had said.

  “I just said, are you sure it’s okay if Dominic comes over later? I know you don’t like him much, and I can meet him somewhere else if you’re uncomfortable with it.”

  “No, it’s fine,” Moira said. “You need someone here to support you, I understand that.”

  For a moment, she considered asking her friend whether or not Dominic had been in town the night before, but decided against it. Now wasn’t the time to voice her suspicions to her friend. It was true that she had never liked Dominic much, but she needed to have something more solid than a gut feeling before broaching the subject again to her friend.

  Normally Moira worked at the deli Monday mornings, but she had already called in to see if Allison could take the shift instead. She was far too tired to commit herself to the deli for the next six hours. Instead, while Martha rested in the guest bedroom, she busied herself online, surfing the Internet for any local news about what happened. Before long, she was rewarded with an article that gave the identity of the young man who had been shot. His name was Freddie Lance, and he was nineteen years old. Even though he had been involved in a crime at the time of the shooting, she felt bad for him. He was so young, young enough that his life had barely begun before it was ended. She wondered, not for the first time, what had happened between the two burglars that caused one to shoot the other.

  When Martha came out of the bedroom to get a drink from the kitchen, Moira approached her with the name, wondering if the other woman would recognize it.

  “It does sound familiar,” her friend said with a frown. “I’m sure I’ve heard it before, but I couldn’t tell you where.”

  “I know I’ve seen him around,” Moira said. “He’s probably come to the deli in the past. Nearly everyone in town has been there at least once. He only graduated from high school last year.”

  “I know why he sounds familiar,” Martha said, her face brightening for a moment. “He’s dating the girl who walks Diamond sometimes. She’s a talkative girl, and she has mentioned him a few times.” Her face fell. “Do you think that means she had something to do with this?”

  “I have no idea,” the deli owner said. “I hope not. What’s her name?”

  “Evelyn Bridges,” Martha said. “She seems like such a nice girl, it’s hard to imagine her doing something like this. She turned eighteen a few months ago, and she’s graduating from high school next year. I can’t see her shooting someone, and definitely not Freddy. From the way she talks, she’s head over heels for him. They’ve known each other for years.”

  “Well, maybe she wasn’t directly involved,” Moira mused. “You said she had a key. He may have taken it from her without her knowing.”

  “It’s a possibility. We should probably tell the police, shouldn’t we?”

  “Detective Jefferson will want to know, even if it turns out to be nothing,” she said. “I’ll give him a call right now. The more information he has, the easier it will be for him to solve the case — and the sooner you can go home and start feeling safe there again.”

  She made the call to the detective, then set about cleaning the house. Cleaning was something that she always did when she was stressed. It was oddly relaxing to do nothing but scrub for a few hours. By the time Dominic got there, the house was sparkling. The dogs had been relegated to the back yard, and a fresh pot of coffee made the entire house smell heavenly. She was feeling peaceful enough that she almost didn’t mind having the man in her home.

  She couldn’t say exactly what it was about Dominic that made her uncomfortable. Sure, there was the time a couple of weeks ago that she and Denise had seen him in a parking lot evidently selling something in a little baggy to a man, but Martha hadn’t seemed concerned when they told her about it. Maybe she was just getting old. Dominic was about her age, but he didn’t act it. He had long blonde hair, a somewhat scruffy beard, and always seemed on the verge of bursting into laughter about something. She had never seen him dress anyway other than extremely casually, and wasn’t completely sure how he made his money. He was supposedly a life coach, but she never heard him talk about his job. She might have called him a hippie, but he was a generation too late for the label.

  He greeted Martha with a hug and a kiss, looking every inch the protective boyfriend as he asked her about what had happened. Moira gave them space, leaving them alone in the living room and joining the dogs outside on the back deck. It was a beautiful day, something that she hadn’t had the chance to notice earlier. The events of the night before seemed to be stuck on repeat inside her head. Two burglars went into a house, and only one came out. Two people other than her had the key to her friend’s house, and one of them was in her living room. The other one was dating the man who had died.

  To her, the list of suspects seemed short. However, regardless of whether there were two suspects or a hundred, without evidence pointing to one of them, they might as well not have had any.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  * * *

  Martha ended up staying with them until Wednesday. When the police gave her the all clear to return to her home, Moira felt a stab of worry for her friend. The police were no closer to finding the second burglar than they had been on Monday, and she was worried her friend might become the second victim if she wasn’t careful.

  To help make herself feel a little bit better, she volunteered to spend a few hours with her friend on her first day back in her own home. When Martha suggested inviting Denise as well and making their evening together into a party, she was happy to agree. The more the merrier as far as she was concerned. There was safety in numbers, after all.

  “Be careful,” David said as she was getting ready to leave that evening. “I hate knowing that you’re going to be there without me. Are you sure you don’t want me to come along?”

  “It’s a ladies’ night,” she said apologetically. “I think it’s best for Martha if she just has Denise and me there. It’s not that she isn’t comfortable with you, but there’s always something comforting about it being just us girls.”

  “I understand,” her husband said. “I know I already said it, but be careful. If anything happens, call the police first and me second.”

  “I know, I know. I’ll keep my phone handy just in case, but I doubt anyone will try to break in with the three of us there. Whoever is behind all of this has been waiting until Martha is out of town to enter her house. It would be out of character for them to try something while she’s there.”

  “You’re probably right, but that won’t stop me from sitting by my phone until you get back,” he said, pulling her toward him for a hug. “I hope the three of you have a good time, and try not to dwell too much on what happened. She needs to think positive thoughts if she wants to be comfortable alone there again.”

  After saying her goodbyes to her husband, Moira petted both of the dogs and blew Felix a kiss. She realized that since the murder at Martha’s house, she hadn’t had much chance to mope around missing her daughter like she had been for the past few weeks. She felt more alive than ever. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not, she thought. I shouldn’t be enjoying anything about this.

  It was nearly dark by the time she pulled into her friend’s driveway. She had stopped at the small grocery store in town to buy
a bottle of wine and a package of cookies. Denise had volunteered to supply dinner from the Grill, an offer that Moira couldn’t turn down. She loved the restaurant’s food, even when it was boxed up and reheated. Between the deli and the Redwood Grill, she was completely spoiled as far as food went. Her life might not always be this exciting, but her meals were never boring.

  Her knock at the door was answered by a series of high-pitched barks. A moment later, the door swung open and Diamond dashed out, running in circles around Moira’s legs and nearly tripping her until Martha called her back inside.

  “Sorry about that,” her friend said. “I think she’s excited to be back home. Either that, or she was hoping that you brought Keeva and Maverick along. She just can’t get enough of them.”

  “She needs a little dog friend of her own,” Moira said, walking into her friend’s house and shutting the door behind her with her free hand. She felt a momentary chill as she flashed back to the night of the shooting. The last time she stood in that room, there had been a body only feet away.