Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
It was nearing four, and Jasper’s shop usually closed at half past three. The door was locked.
I peeked in and saw him behind the counter. He glanced up, and I waved. He hurried forward. His shop was something straight out of Paris with its pink, white, and black décor and lovely glass shelves with all sorts of goodies.
When he opened the door, we were assaulted by the lovely scent of his patisserie, and the sound of sobbing.
Mara and I turned at the same time to see the mistress sitting in a corner at one of the wrought iron tables.
She was alternately sobbing and stuffing a variety of pastries in her mouth.
Mascara streamed down her face, and there were bits of cream and pastry on her lips.
“Oh, my,” I said.
“Exactly,” he whispered. “She was like that when she came in and bought one of everything I had left. I asked if she was all right, and she cried harder. I dinnae know what to do.”
“You’re the doctor, Em, what do you suggest?” Mara asked.
“You’re the bartender,” I joked. But I knew a mental breakdown when I saw one. And that was no laughing matter. My personal opinion of the woman didn’t matter. She needed help, and I’d taken an oath long ago to do exactly that.
Mara took my shopping bags, and she and Jasper went to the back where the kitchen was. But I had a feeling they would be listening. My sweet friends were just as nosey as I was.
I sat down across from her. She was busy stuffing a lemon tart into her mouth but looked up when the elegantly scrolled chair I pulled out for myself scraped against the tile floor.
“Who are you?” she sniffed.
I handed her a small package of tissues I pulled from my purse. “I’m Dr. Emilia McRoy, the town doctor,” I said. “You seem distressed, and I hoped I might be able to help.”
“A doctor? I’m not sick, I’m just sad. My boyfriend is furious with me because his wife found out about us. I don’t think you have pills for that sort of thing.”
“Right. But I can listen if it will help you. Let’s start with an easy question. What’s your name?”
She shook her head. “I’m Davina. You’ll be no better than the rest of them. Everyone always takes the wife’s side. They have no idea how awful she has been with him. I’ve been looking after him and making him happy for months. We were having a good time.
“But she just confronted me in a shop, and he took her side. He said we are through, and he wants his debit card back.”
Oh. My. This was a level of shallow I seldom witnessed, but here we were. She must not have noticed us in the shop during the showdown with the wife.
“I could take it to him, if you don’t want to see the man who broke your heart.”
She waved a hand at me. “Oh. No. I’ll be throwing it in his face, once I buy myself everything I want and get a good cash advance off it. He cannae just use me like that and throw me away. I’ll show him.”
“Right.” The best thing, to avoid a tirade, was just to agree with her.
“Besides, I know things. Secrets that could cause him big trouble. He seems to have forgotten that. He’ll come to his senses.”
“Oh?”
“You’re a doctor, right?”
“I am. Why?”
“If I tell you things, it is confidential, right? Like a barrister?”
“Well, yes, if you are a patient. But I need to remind you that you aren’t. I am looking into the death of your boyfriend’s partner, Donald Jacks.”
“Oh, that isn’t the secret. He didn’t kill him, though I’m sure he wanted to,” she said.
“Why is that?”
“He was costing the firm a lot of money and clients with some bad decisions. That’s why Jeremy was furious with him.”
“Angry enough to kill him?”
She shrugged. “I don’t think so. Jeremy isn’t like that. Sure, he has a temper, but I can’t see him bothering to kill someone. Though he might hire someone to do it for him. Jeremy doesn’t like to get his hands dirty.”
She didn’t seem to realize what she was saying. I glanced up to find Jasper and Mara with wide eyes. They’d heard everything she said. I had warned her that this wasn’t confidential, so it wasn’t my fault.
“You think he hired someone to kill his partner?”
She sighed. “No. I mean, that sort of thing only happens in the movies. I was just saying that he would never do something like that himself. He’d convince someone else to do it. He can be very persuasive when he wants to be.”
“I see.”
“He wasn’t even there that night, though. He had to do something with the wife in Edinburgh. She sits on some charity board, and they had a do. He wasn’t happy about having to cancel with me.”
“Oh?”
“I told him I was going to go have fun without him. I just wanted to make him jealous, you know? And it worked. That’s why he gave me his card. He wanted to make it up to me. So, even though I thought the train thing might be boring, I went without him.”
“I loved your dress.” I needed to keep her talking.
She smiled. “Did you? I took special care when I found out we could dress up. I did some acting you know.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“I like changing up my look for different roles. Not that there is much going on around here. But where I live in Edinburgh, I do a lot of local stuff. I’ve been in several commercials. Maybe, you’ve seen me?”
“I’m sure I have,” I said. “So, where do you stay when you’re here?”
“Jeremy has a summer cottage by the beach. I’ve been staying there. Though, since he’s angry with me, he’ll probably want me to go home for a bit. But he’ll get over it, he always does.” She stuffed part of a chocolate croissant in her mouth.
She waved at Jasper like he was a waiter. “Can I get a box for the rest of these?” She had a platter of goodies in front of her.
“Did you see Mr. Jacks the night he died?”
She blew out a breath. “Yes. He was leering at me. I may have given him the finger.”
“Leering?”
“Yes. He didn’t approve of me and Jeremy. He liked the wife for some reason and threatened to tell her what was going on. I told him that night it was none of his business. And if he said anything, he’d only be making Jeremy angry.”
“So, you spoke to him?”
“Aye, I did.”
“Did you by chance notice anything strange about him?”
“What do you mean? I was trying to avoid him. Not only was he mean about me and Jeremy, all he ever talked about was his blasted trains. Most boring man on the planet.”
“Think back,” I said. “When he was leering at you, do you remember anything different about him?”
“His face was pudgier than usual. I noticed his lips were kind of puffy. If it was anyone else, I would have thought Botox. But I can’t see him bothering with that sort of thing.”
“So, his face appeared to be a bit swollen?”
She nodded. “Yes. I guess it was. Not that I’ve paid much attention to him ever.”
“Do you remember seeing anyone around him that night?”
Her eyes widened. “Like a killer?”
“Yes. Or even one of the waitstaff who might have been close by?”
She shook her head. “After he yelled at me and called me some not-so-nice names, I did my best to avoid him. I dinnae remember seeing him on the train, though. I thought he was supposed to be telling detective stories from the twenties and thirties. That was in the program. But I was trying to avoid him, so I didn’t check out his chat. ”
Jasper came over with a box, and then quickly went away.
I took one of my cards out of my purse. “If you think of anything that might help us about that night, please call. Or if you need a doctor for anything, I’m here for you.”
She might be shallow, but she was young. I felt a bit sorry for her. Jeremy was much older, and while I tried not to judge others’ relationships, he was cheating on his wife with a much younger woman. It was difficult not to.
And this young woman had played her part. It would be easy to blame her, but I didn’t. She was young and shallow, but I couldn’t see her killing the victim.
She gathered up her box of goodies, and Jasper let her out.
“Talk about throwing someone under the bus,” I said.
“Sad thing is, I don’t think she realized what she was doing,” Jasper said.
“She’s so young,” Mara said. “That Jeremy Burns is a creeper, as you like to say, Em.”
I did say that a lot about men who leered a bit too much.
“True. Part of me feels sorry for her,” I said.
“With all that makeup and the terrible wig, I thought she was in her late twenties,” Jeremy said. “But she told me she was twenty-one.”
Mara and I glanced at one another.
“That’s even worse,” Mara said. “Just, yuck.”
I agreed. Burns was taking advantage of the young woman’s naiveté.
“It was interesting what she said about Jeremy, though,” Mara said. “What if he did hire someone? Maybe one of the waitstaff to kill his partner?”
I blew out a breath. “Hiring a killer? Maybe, if we were in a bigger city with some organized crime syndicate. It feels like a bit of a reach for Sea Isle. As we know, poison is very personal. And this was quite specific.”
I tapped a finger on the table.
“What are you thinking, Em?” Mara asked.
“I don’t know. My thoughts are whirling. But someone broke into my office for a reason. That took a person with some knowledge of security and how to avoid those cameras. It’s all so confusing.”
Both Mara and Jeremy nodded sympathetically.
“One minute I think the killer is someone sophisticated enough to know what they were doing. The next minute, I wonder if they were just lucky. I need time to sort it out in my head, and to talk to Ewan.”
“You’ll have plenty of time on your date,” Mara said.
Jasper clapped his hands. “Finally! You have a date with our ACC?”
I rolled my eyes. “I wouldn’t call it that. More of one friend helping out another.” I explained how his mother kept trying to fix him up with one of her friends’ daughters.
“Really?” Mara asked. “Or was he just trying to get you on his side so you would go out with him?”
Had he done that? “Stop making more of it than it is.”
“We shall see,” Mara said.
“I’ll be there with David,” Jasper said.
“Oh?” David owned a coffee shop in Edinburgh. He’d helped cater an event where Jasper’s patisserie was on display. They’d been going the friend route, attending movies and such.
He held up a hand. “Like Em, it is more of a friend’s thing. He offered to help me put out the cakes. Once that’s done, I’m free to enjoy the gala. It was a chance for us both to get dressed up.”
“Well, while we are confessing,” Mara said. “I’ll be there with Teddy, the dentist I met at Angie’s wedding. And before you make more of it than it is, we too are just friends.”
“Oh? I didn’t realize you two had kept in touch.”
She cleared her throat. “We didn’t. He was here surfing a few weeks ago, and we had dinner.”
“You didn’t tell me,” I said, surprised.
“Well, it is good for women to have a bit of mystery.”
“Look at us all having dates,” I said. “Almost like we’re grownups.”
We laughed.
As we headed home, I wasn’t thinking about my date with Ewan. There was time to worry about that later. No, I had a killer in mind.
But how and when did the killer strike? Those were the two biggest questions. If the victim was already showing symptoms, why hadn’t he used an EpiPen? Or asked for help?
It was frustrating that I was no closer to an answer with any of my questions. I needed to speak to Ewan. Maybe, he could help me piece together what I’d just learned with the facts of the case.
I need answers and I need them now.