PoisonBuried Punch (Black Cat Cafe Cozy Mystery Series Book 6) Read online

  Fanning her arms out to her sides, she twirled around. “How do I look?”

  Jason caught her after two spins. “Good enough to eat.” He pretended to munch on her neck but she squealed and pulled away, laughing.

  As they headed out the door, Annie’s phone chirped with a new text message from Christy. I think someone’s in the tunnel. Can you come over?

  She thought quickly and told Jason she would meet him at the café.

  “No way. I know you, someone will convince you they need help and I won’t see you for hours. We’re driving together.”

  “Okay but I have to make a stop at Christy’s house.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Why?”

  Annie grabbed his hand. “I’ll explain in the car.”

  Jason insisted on driving. Annie filled him in about the tunnel and Eddie stalking Christy. “At least that’s the theory,” she added.

  He turned his head to stare at her, obviously annoyed. “And you were going to tell me about this, when?”

  She shrugged. “It may be nothing.”

  “And Christy might be making all this up and she could be the killer. Annie, don’t be so trusting.”

  They drove in silence until Jason pulled in behind Christy’s SUV. He reached over and squeezed her hand. She smiled, glad he cared enough to worry about her. Annie pointed across the street to the abandoned house and explained where the tunnel was before they got out of Jason’s car. From Christy’s yard, the tunnel was completely invisible.

  The curtains were partly opened. Annie saw Christy pace back and forth in her living room as they walked to her front door.

  Annie heard Blue and Bella barking. Christy opened the door before Annie had a chance to knock. Christy pulled her inside, almost slamming the door on Jason, who was a few paces behind.

  “Why did you bring Jason? I wanted you to come alone,” Christy said without concealing her annoyance.

  “Well, he’s here because we were on our way to the Halloween parade in town. I can leave if you want.” Annie challenged Christy with her words.

  “No, it’s all right. I’m wound up pretty tightly and he caught me by surprise.” She picked up her flashlight. “Come on. Let’s take a look. I haven’t seen anyone leave yet.”

  Christy led them out the back door with the flashlight off. Annie felt Jason’s hand on her tense shoulder, which was a tiny bit reassuring. All this cloak and dagger stuff was beginning to unnerve her, especially with the branches creaking around her, creating shadows everywhere she looked.

  Christy walked silently through her backyard to the edge of her property before crossing the street. No cars were in sight. No people. No nothing for that matter. The broken gate hung open enough so they could squeeze through without moving it.

  Christy crouched as low as possible. Annie and Jason followed her lead. At the entrance of the tunnel, she got on her hands and knees, finally turning on her flashlight and moving forward quickly.

  They reached the opening. Empty.

  “How did they get out?” Christy whispered. “There must be another path.” As her head swiveled around following her beam of light, Annie gasped.

  “Look. In your house. Someone’s inside.” Annie pointed to a figure moving in front of Christy’s living room window. The same window Annie had watched Christy pace in front of.

  They heard a door slam, but no one appeared.

  Christy crawled at top speed back through the tunnel. “They must have gone out the back door. But where are the dogs?” She flew across the road, her feet barely touching the pavement, flinging her front door open. Bella and Blue were happily gnawing on marrowbones without a care in the world.

  Christy threw her flashlight across the room, letting it shatter into pieces on the floor. “I’ve been duped. One of us should have stayed in the house. Whoever was inside knew exactly how to get by my dogs.” She walked into her kitchen and shrieked. “Eddie’s computer is gone. They stole his computer.”

  Annie saw a small leather-bound book on the table but Christy quickly moved it into a drawer, which also contained the envelope Christy had given Annie earlier. Her curiosity soared but she filed the information away for another time. Now she needed to focus on what Christy found on Eddie’s computer.

  “Did you discover anything useful yet?” Annie asked.

  “His passwords were saved so I could log into his email and several other sites. From what I’ve gathered so far, he had something going on with Samantha.”

  “What kind of something? Romantic?”

  “Samantha was pushing for that, but I think Eddie was only stringing her along so she would help him find me.”

  “That doesn’t make sense. If Samantha was interested in Eddie, and Eddie wanted to get back together with you, why would Samantha tell Eddie you’re living here? She would want to keep Eddie as far away from you as possible.”

  Christy rolled her eyes. “Samantha didn’t know Eddie wanted to get back together with me. He kept that a secret from her so he could manipulate her. Of course, Eddie was the master at manipulating everyone to get what he wanted. Only, it didn’t work on me this last time.”

  Christy’s theory sounded fishy to Annie. Maybe Eddie and Samantha were working together to find Christy and get back whatever it was that she allegedly stole from Eddie.

  Annie shook her head. The scenario changed depending on who was telling the story.

  Christy had her phone out. “I need to call Tyler. Have him search for Samantha. My guess is she’s the one who stole Eddie’s computer. She knows Blue and he wouldn’t mind if she came in my house. And with a couple of marrowbones, she’d be able to keep Blue and Bella happy while she searched.”

  Annie’s nerves tingled. Samantha told Annie she suspected Christy would pin Eddie’s murder on her. What was going on? Who was lying?

  Chapter 12

  Christy threw her phone to join the flashlight that was smashed on the floor and balled her hands into fists. “Tyler said I have to stay here. Keep a low profile. He’s heading to the Catfish Cove Pub, hoping to find Samantha and ask her some questions.” She paced like a raging cougar. “I can’t stand this having to stay behind the scenes stuff.”

  Annie ignored the drama, not letting it distract her from getting to the bottom of whatever was going on. Christy was acting like she had already decided Samantha was guilty of Eddie’s murder without any concrete evidence.

  Annie glanced at Christy’s desk. She wondered how she could manage to see what was in the envelope and the leather-bound book that had been hurriedly pushed out of sight in Christy’s desk drawer.

  Jason, who had remained quiet in the background, touched Annie’s arm. “Let’s go to the pub. Maybe we can accidentally, on purpose, bump into Samantha.” He shrugged. “Who knows, maybe she’ll tell you something useful. It would be helpful to find out what she’s been doing for the last hour or two.”

  Christy spun around. “Great idea. Be sure to text me any information you get.” She plopped down at her desk and opened her laptop. “I have enough information from the history on Eddie’s computer to do some more searching from mine, even without his passwords.”

  She took a long drink from her mug before focusing on her screen while Annie and Jason let themselves out.

  “What do you make of Christy’s behavior?” Annie asked Jason.

  “You know her better than I do.” He opened the door for Annie before scooting around to get into the driver’s side. “Is she always so hysterical and impulsive? With her background as a detective, I would expect her to be more thoughtful and deliberate with her actions.”

  “Exactly what I was thinking. She certainly isn’t acting like herself, nor what I have come to expect to be her cool, calculated behavior. Either Eddie threw her for a loop, or she’s panicking and trying to cover her tracks by throwing us down the wrong path.”

  “What do you mean?” Jason turned quickly to look at Annie.

  “Samantha told me she was afraid C
hristy would try to pin Eddie’s murder on her.” As Jason drove toward town, Annie watched the scenery go by without really seeing it. “Why did Samantha show up so soon after we found Eddie’s body? And why wasn’t she at work last night at the pub like she was supposed to be? She has some explaining to do, that’s for sure.”

  “Don’t jump to any conclusions. She may have a perfectly reasonable explanation.” Jason stopped his car so some kids dressed in Halloween costumes could run across the street.

  “Someone stole the computer. If it wasn’t Samantha, who was it?” Annie finally turned her head to look at Jason.

  Jason backed into a parking spot down the street from the pub. “Who else in town even knew Eddie besides Samantha and Christy?”

  Annie counted off on her fingers. “Kyle Bishop, the cook at the Catfish Cove Pub; Dusty, the bartender at the Halloween party; and maybe Dennis, the owner of the pub. I’m not sure about Dennis.”

  Jason held Annie’s arm, preventing her from opening her car door. “Do they have any reason to kill Eddie?”

  Annie puckered her lips. “That’s what someone needs to find out. The common thread seems to be when Eddie went to bartender school. Something happened when Christy was finishing at the police academy and Eddie met those other clowns at bartender school.”

  Jason released Annie’s arm. “Let’s see if we can find out anything from Samantha. She was helping Eddie with Blue, so maybe he was closest to her.”

  The pub was busy for Halloween happy hour. Jason and Annie wove their way through the crowd while reading the happy hour drink menu on the blackboard above the bar.

  “Want me to get you one of those?” Jason asked, pointing to the Poison Punch. He leaned close to Annie’s ear. “Appropriate for Halloween and the event that happened yesterday, don’t you think?”

  Annie’s head swiveled around to Jason. “That’s not funny! Someone was murdered.” Her mouth formed an ‘O.’ “I wonder if Tyler ever checked the body for poison.”

  “Of course he would. The autopsy would reveal anything like that.” Jason steered her to the end of the bar where Samantha sat nursing a drink.

  “Hey, got a minute?” Annie asked as she slid into the seat next to Samantha, and Jason sat on her other side.

  Samantha didn’t turn her head. Her shoulders slumped over the counter and her head sagged. “Sure. I’ve already been grilled by Catfish Cove’s finest. What do you want? My break’s over in about five minutes.”

  “What are you drinking? We’ll have the same.”

  “Poison Punch.” Samantha nodded her head to get Dennis’s attention, pointed to her drink, and put up two fingers.

  “Interesting name. What’s in it?” Annie asked.

  Samantha handed Annie her glass. “Try it. Mine’s a virgin since I’m working but yours will have red wine, apple cider, and boysenberry juice, with apple slices for a garnish.”

  “Did you say poisonberry?” Annie asked with a crease forming between her eyebrows.

  “Ha.” Samantha’s lip actually twitched slightly. “No. I said boysenberry but I like poisonberry much better. I know a few people I’d serve that to. Starting with that annoying detective.”

  Annie sipped the drink. “This is delicious. Try it, Jason.” Samantha’s comments registered in Annie’s brain, triggering several questions, but she decided not to voice them. Yet.

  Dennis slid two glasses to the end of the bar, expertly timing the push so they stopped in front of Samantha. She slid one to her left and one to her right. “Enjoy,” she mumbled without looking at either Annie or Jason.

  “So, have you been here working all afternoon?” Annie casually asked before picking up her drink.

  Samantha’s eyes narrowed. “Is that your clever way to ask if I’m the one who stole Eddie’s computer?”

  Annie felt her face heat up and was glad of the low lighting to hide her embarrassment. “I suppose so.”

  “Didn’t I tell you,” Samantha’s voice rose full of annoyance, “that Christy would try to point evidence in my direction? Maybe she hid the computer herself.”

  “No, I saw someone in her house when we were across the street.” Annie sipped some more Poison Punch and licked her top lip.

  “In that tunnel in front of the abandoned house?”

  “You know about it?” Annie tried to keep her voice calm and nonjudgmental.

  “Sure. Eddie told me he was spying on Christy. Trying to figure out how to get his stuff back.”

  “What stuff?” Annie asked, staring directly at Samantha. “You need to give me something. I can tell the Police Chief to start looking in a new direction.”

  “Right. He’s infatuated with Christy. What good will that do?”

  Annie tilted her head. “You have to trust me on this.”

  Samantha bowed her head, her lips pressed tightly together. She swiveled her bar stool to face Annie directly. “Here’s the thing. When we were all at school together, we did some stuff and made some money. Eddie stashed it until we could get together to split it up. That never happened, because it disappeared the same time Christy ran.”

  “Why didn’t Eddie go to the police?”

  She turned away from Annie. “Ha, it was kind of complicated. Going to the police would have been more trouble than tracking down Christy. Besides, she is the police.”

  “How much money?”

  “Plenty, but that’s all I’m sharing for now. You’ve got to give me something before I tell you more.” Samantha slid off the barstool and walked behind the counter without another glance at Annie or Jason.

  “Wait,” Annie shouted over the din in the pub.

  Samantha slowed and came back to stand across from Annie.

  “How did you end up here?”

  “I met Kyle at a party and he invited me to come back with him; said there was a job opening for a bartender here. I was completely surprised to find out Dennis was looking for a bartender. He hired me on the spot since he knew me from school. He was my teacher.”

  “And then Christy moved here. What a coincidence,” Annie added.

  “You could say that. A lucky break for us.”

  “Why didn’t you just try to get the money back and leave Eddie out of the equation?”

  Samantha glanced over her shoulder at Dennis who had been keeping an eye on her the whole time. She leaned close to Annie. “Dennis and Kyle wanted to do that. They were furious when Eddie showed up here at the Catfish Cove Pub.” She lowered her voice. “And even angrier when they found out I was the one who told Eddie that Christy was working here as a detective.”

  A rowdy customer banged his empty beer mug on the bar and Samantha hustled over to get him a refill.

  Jason slid onto the stool that Samantha had vacated. He put his arm around Annie, pulling her close so he could whisper in her ear. “Interesting.”

  Annie finished her Poison Punch and shivered. “This drink gives me the creeps. Do you think the police missed something about Eddie’s cause of death?”

  “You think he was poisoned?” Jason asked, a crease forming between his brows.

  “This might sound farfetched, but what if he didn’t lunge at Christy, but was actually falling into her and she misread his action. Her stabs didn’t kill him. The real murderer was watching, moved him near the water to make it look like he cracked his head on a rock or something like that to cover up that he had poison in his system.”

  Annie felt her skin crawl when she realized she was being watched.

  “Do you want a refill of your Poison Punch?” Dennis asked, his jaws grinding together. “You already wasted enough of Samantha’s time. Either order or make room for someone else to sit here.”

  His dark eyes stared into Annie, making her squirm and look away. Jason threw a twenty-dollar bill on the counter. “Keep the change,” he said as he put his hand on Annie’s back and guided her out of the pub.

  Chapter 13

  Once outside, Annie filled her lungs with the cold, crisp a
ir. “Something is off with that guy. It felt like he was looking right inside my head, reading my thoughts.” She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to ward off the chill from Dennis’s stare.

  Costumed kids with parents trying to keep up streamed toward the Cove’s Corner parking lot. Goblins, ghosts, witches, cowboys, cowgirls, and kids in every other costume imaginable carried their empty bags in anticipation of receiving lots of sweets.

  Martha and Harry sat in Harry’s antique black Ford with orange streamers attached, waiting to lead the Halloween parade down Main Street. Charlie, Harry’s parrot, perched in his cage in the back seat and squawked greetings as kids walked by the car.

  Charlie was always a hit at events and had become the town’s unofficial mascot. Annie could hear his squawking and laughed when something appropriate rang out. She assumed Harry had worked on getting Charlie to say boo and trick-or-treat. Half the time, Charlie got the timing and phrase right, causing the kids or their parents to jump in surprise then laugh when they saw Charlie sitting in his cage.

  Jason held Annie’s arm, guiding her toward the Black Cat Café. “Let’s leave the car parked on Main Street. No point in trying to find another spot now with the parade about to start.”

  They walked quickly away from the pub trying to avoid any collisions. Annie turned her face for a second to ask Jason a question when a tall, muscular man bumped into her side, almost knocking her to the ground.

  “So sorry.” He caught her right arm and Jason steadied her left side. “That was all my fault. I’m late for a date.”

  “You’re the bartender that’s been helping out at the pub, right? Dusty Reed?” Annie asked.

  He held his hand out. “Yes, and you are?”

  Annie shook his strong hand. “Annie Fisher. How long have you been in town?” Annie felt a slight tug from Jason but she dug her heels in, determined to find out more about this guy.

  “Not long. The owner of the pub, Dennis Franchino, asked me to help out through this busy time.”

  Annie held onto Dusty’s hand so he couldn’t leave. “Did you know Eddie Crank?”