Chapter Eleven

David and Arlene turned down Lily and Ian’s invitation to join them for breakfast. None of them were allowed to return to Marlow House. According to Police Chief MacDonald, they wouldn’t be able to do that until after three that afternoon. By the time David and Arlene left the police station, Lily and Ian were already gone, but Danielle and Chris were still inside, talking to officers.

Arlene silently stared out the side window of the Honda Accord, as David steered the vehicle down the road, looking for somewhere to stop for breakfast.

With both hands firmly on the steering wheel, David glanced briefly at Arlene and asked, “I thought you’d look happier.”

Still gazing out the side window, she said, “Maybe we should go home now.”

“Just because Morris is dead, it doesn’t mean this is over for us. Maybe this isn’t what we planned, but I don’t see the point of leaving now.”

A few minutes later, David pulled into a restaurant parking lot. After he turned off the engine, they both got out of the vehicle, neither of them saying a word. They were just about to step onto the walkway leading to the front door of the restaurant when they heard someone call out, “Arlene!”

They both paused and looked in the direction of the voice. Arlene reached out and touched David’s wrist. “Go on in, and get us a table.”

“Who’s that?” David watched the man walk toward them.

“Just someone I know.” Arlene gave David a gentle nudge, urging him to continue to the restaurant. Without another word, David turned and hurried up the walkway and entered the building.

“I wondered if that was you!” the man greeted when he reached Arlene, giving her a quick hug.

“Adam, Adam Nichols. It’s been a long time,” Arlene said when the hug ended. They stood together on the sidewalk, their gazes locked, and his hands lightly holding her fingertips.

“You look amazing. Of course, you always did,” Adam told her. He gave her fingers a quick squeeze and then released his hold.

She took a step back, her eyes still on his. “You look pretty good yourself. I’m really sorry about Isabella.”

“You heard?” Adam asked.

“You knew I would, considering everything. Anyway, it was in all the papers.”

“You probably also heard, Isabella and I hadn’t been together for a long time. Almost a year when she died.”

Arlene readjusted the strap of her handbag, which hung over her right shoulder. “Well, you know what I always said: Earthbound Spirits had a way of destroying relationships.”

“I don’t know, I always thought they were responsible for…” Adam didn’t finish the sentence.

“For us?” Arlene asked in a whisper.

Adam shrugged in reply.

“You could have called me after…well…after you and Isabella broke it off.” Slipping her handbag strap off her shoulder, she clutched it in her hands, nervously fidgeting with the leather loop.

“I considered. But then, I didn’t think you would’ve been thrilled to hear from me.”

Glancing down at her purse, Arlene sighed. Looking back up into Adam’s face, she said, “Yeah, you’re probably right. Things were always a little complicated for us.”

“So…” Adam nodded toward the restaurant door, “your boyfriend…husband?”

“Not married,” Arlene explained. “He’s a…friend…we’re spending the weekend in Frederickport.”

Adam shoved his hands into his coat pockets, glanced from Arlene to the restaurant door, and then back to Arlene. “Ahh, a romantic Valentine’s weekend.”

Arlene shrugged. “So what about you? Any woman finally get you to settle down?”

“No. Still single. I’m not the settle down type.”

Arlene looked over to the restaurant. “I guess I should go. I imagine David’s got us a table by now.”

“Yeah, and he’s probably wondering what’s keeping you so long.”

Arlene flashed Adam a weak smile. “It really was good seeing you again.”

“You too. Have a nice weekend.” Adam leaned over and brushed a kiss over her cheek.

Flashing him a final smile, she said, “Take care of yourself.”

When Arlene turned from Adam and started toward the restaurant, he called out, “Arlene, wait!”

She paused a moment and looked at him.

“I was sorry to hear about your brother,” he called out.

“I’d understand if you really weren’t,” she told him.

Adam watched as Arlene turned from him and made her way into the restaurant. When the door closed, Adam mumbled to himself, “Now where are you having breakfast? Not here.”

Shaking his head, Adam turned back toward the parking lot.

When Adam parked in front of Pier Café, ten minutes later, he spied Danielle and Chris walking toward the restaurant. Hastily getting from his car, he slammed the door shut and sprinted to catch up with them, while calling out, “Chris! Danielle!”

They both came to a stop and turned to face Adam.

Slightly out of breath when he reached them, he said, “I tried calling you about an hour ago. I wanted to let you know I spoke to escrow this morning.”

“Is everything okay?” Chris asked.

“Looks like escrow is closing early. By this afternoon you’ll be a Frederickport home owner.”

Before Chris could respond, Adam turned his attention to Danielle, looking her up and down with a curious expression. “When did you take up jogging?”

“Jogging?” Danielle frowned.

“I just figured…” Adam looked her up and down again, taking in her disheveled appearance. “Have you looked in a mirror this morning?”

Wrinkling her nose, Danielle backhanded Adam’s arm. He only laughed at her tepid assault. He then looked back to Chris, noting that he didn’t look much better.

“Ahh, now I get it,” Adam said with a dry chuckle. “Active morning in bed for you two? Grabbing some food before round two?”

Danielle rolled her eyes and turned toward the restaurant. As she started for its door she said, “Adam Nichols, you have a dirty mind.”

“Actually, I rather like how he thinks,” Chris said with a laugh, as he and Adam trailed behind her.

“So you really didn’t spend the morning in bed together? That’s rather disappointing,” Adam said as he and Chris followed Danielle inside the restaurant.

“Tell me about it,” Chris said dryly.

“So why do you two look like something the cat dragged in?”

“We spent the morning at the police station,” Chris explained.

Without asking for an invitation, Adam followed the pair to a booth and sat down with them.

“We don’t have to eat with him, do we?” Danielle said with mock seriousness.

Chris picked up the menus at the end of the table, handing one to Danielle and then one to Adam. “He’s my Realtor, Danielle. And I want to hear about my new house.”

“What do you mean you spent the morning at the police station?” Adam asked.

Peeking over her menu, Danielle looked at Adam. “Peter Morris was murdered last night.”

“You’re kidding me? Who killed him?”

“That’s the question of the hour,” Chris replied. “And technically, he was murdered early this morning, not last night.”

The next moment the server came to their table, filled their coffee cups, and took their order. When she left them, Adam asked, “Where did it happen?”

“In the parlor at Marlow House,” Danielle told him.

“Holy crap, seriously? Not really surprised someone finally killed the hustler. But in Marlow House?”

“I always figured it would be in the library with the candle stick, not in the parlor with the fishing knife,” Chris quipped.

Danielle couldn’t help but laugh. “Are we awful? The man is dead. And it was horribly gruesome.” She shook her head and took a sip of coffee.

“That’s pretty cold. Even for me,” Adam said. “What happened? I take it neither of you killed him, or you’d be in jail right now. Although with Chris’ money you’d probably be out.” He looked at Chris and arched his brows. “You didn’t kill him, did you? After all, I’m counting on making a lot of money from you on real estate commissions in the future, and I’d rather not have to do it from your prison cell.”

“God no,” Chris snorted.

Danielle went on to tell Adam about how they had found the body in the parlor and spent the morning at the police station, answering questions.

“Any idea who did it?” Adam asked when she finished recounting the morning’s events.

Chris picked up his coffee cup and looked across the table at Adam. “Officer Morelli seems to think it was me.”

“I suppose if Joe has to pin this murder on someone, you’d be the best candidate,” Adam said.

“Why me?” Chris asked incredulously.

“Maybe the blood on your hands when Heather walked in?” Danielle suggested.

Looking at Chris, Adam nodded toward Danielle. “I was thinking more along the lines of getting rid of the competition.”

“I’d hate to think Joe would do something like that,” Danielle said with a sigh. “It’s one thing if he sincerely thought Chris did it. Hell, he once believed I’d kill my cousin. But I can’t imagine him trying to pin a murder on someone for a personal reason. And anyway, Joe knows there will never be anything between us, and Chris and I are just friends.”

Adam glanced over to Chris, noting his unreadable expression. “So what was your motive? Hell, I’d have more of a motive to kill him than you.”

“Don’t say that too loud,” Danielle scolded. “From what I recall, jail didn’t agree with you.”

“You have a point.” Adam cringed.

“What would your motive be?” Chris asked.

“I suppose you could say I lost a girlfriend to Earthbound Spirits. Isabella and I broke up after she got hooked up with them.” Adam explained.

Danielle was just about to take a sip of water when she paused and looked across the table at Adam. Lifting her brows, she said, “According to Will Wayne, you might have even more of a reason to kill Morris.” She sipped the water and then set the glass back on the table.

“Will Wayne? Isabella’s father?” Adam asked.

“I ran into Will a few weeks back. He told me someone called him up and claimed Morris was responsible for Isabella’s death,” Danielle explained.

“Who called him?” Adam asked.

Danielle shook her head. “I’ve no idea; neither did he. Some anonymous caller.”

“It was probably a prank call. A crappy one,” Adam said.

“That’s what I told Danielle, when she told me,” Chris said.

Danielle shrugged. “Will seems to think it might be possible.”

“What did the chief say? Something like that would have to involve the coroner,” Adam said.

“That’s pretty much what I told Will. But I haven’t said anything to MacDonald about it.”

“Not even this morning, when you were being questioned?” Adam asked.

Danielle frowned. “Why would I say anything?”

“I’d imagine they’re looking at all possible motives,” Adam explained.

“Will didn’t have anything to do with Morris’ death,” Danielle insisted.

“I’m not saying he did.” Adam set his mug on the table and looked over at Danielle. “I don’t believe anyone murdered Isabella. She had an aneurism, according to the coroner. Anyway, if Earthbound Spirits had something to do with her death, they wouldn’t have been so careless with the body. Kind of hard to cash in on her will without a body.”

“They didn’t know Stoddard was going to hide it.” Danielle grew silent for a moment and then looked up. “Maybe you guys are right; it probably was a prank call.”

“Why do you say that?” Chris asked.

“Isabella had already changed her will when she died. And I’m sure Earthbound Spirits knew the will they had was outdated.”

“But they did put it into probate,” Adam reminded.

“When Will and I discussed a motive for killing Isabella, we agreed that Earthbound Spirits probably felt confident claiming Stoddard forged the current will, because of what he’d done with Lily. Not to mention, Stoddard was dead and not there to defend his claim on Isabella’s estate.”

“I see where you’re going,” Adam said. “At the time Isabella died, Morris had no idea Stoddard would hide the body, or end up getting murdered.”

“If Earthbound Spirits was responsible for Isabella’s death, the motive certainly wasn’t to get their hands on her estate. If Stoddard had called the police the moment he found Isabella’s body, the chances of the courts favoring Earthbound Spirit’s claims over Stoddard’s would have been a long shot.”

“So I wonder who the caller was, and why pick on poor Will,” Chris said.

“Obviously it wasn’t anyone who knew anything about Earthbound Spirits,” Adam said.

“Why do you say that?” Danielle asked.

“Well, you said they accused Morris of killing her. Morris never did the dirty work. It would have been Cleve.”

“Actually, the woman mentioned Cleve,” Danielle said. “According to the caller, Cleve refused to kill Isabella; so, Morris got someone else to do it.”

Frowning, Adam looked from Danielle to Chris. “I’d find that hard to believe.”

“Why is that?” Chris asked.

“Cleve would never refuse Morris anything.”

“According to the caller he did,” Danielle insisted.

“Caller…did you say it was a woman?” Adam asked.

“Yeah, why?”

Adam shook his head. “Nothing…just thinking.”