Peppermint Chocolate Murder (A Maple Hills Cozy Mystery Book 2) Read online

  “You two are real cozy,” Chief Daily told Hawk. Throwing his eyes out onto the lovely front lawn, he shook his head. “That lodge needs security cameras,” he complained. “All right, Ms. Bates, you're in the clear for now, but stay in town.”

  “Where else would I go?” Nikki asked in a voice that told Chief Daily his statement was absurd.

  Chief Daily squeezed his hands together. “Listen,” he snapped, forgetting his patience, “you're bad luck for this town, do you hear me? Ever since you arrived, nothing but bad things have occurred. I just so happen to think our Mayor didn't deserve you destroying his life. The man was being blackmailed—”

  “The man was a criminal who attempted to murder an innocent woman,” Nikki yelled, feeling her own patience leave the tracks. “There is a system of law in this country, Chief, and no one is above the law. This town is safer now, and I, for one, am glad.”

  “You made a few enemies,” Chief Daily warned Nikki, “so I wouldn't be going around town parading your victory.”

  “She also made a lot of friends,” Hawk pointed out. “Sure, some people are sour, but more people are grateful to Nikki. Every town has bad grapes, Pop, and you know that. Who cares if a few old bats are upset with Nikki for making this town a better place for our children. And if you had done your job, maybe you would have realized that the mayor was hiding members of the mafia here, for crying out loud.”

  “Don't lecture me!” Chief Daily hollered at Hawk. “We're already on thin ice here.”

  “Don't remind me,” Hawk growled back, allowing Nikki to see his temper. But, Nikki realized, the temper she saw erupt in Hawks' eyes was a controlled temper, the kind of temper a brilliant man utilized with patience and skill instead of with uncontrolled arrogance. “This town was polluted long before Nikki moved here.”

  “That's not what people are going to think once word of this man's death gets out,” Chief Daily pointed out. “People are going to put two and two together. Even the people who support this woman will lose confidence in her.”

  “So be it,” Nikki said, stepping up to Hawk and standing at his side. “I'm not leaving town. I can clearly see that's what you want me to do. I'm staying right here.”

  “There's ways to make a person leave town,” Chief Daily promised Nikki.

  “Did you just threaten me?” Nikki asked, shocked.

  Chief Daily began to defend his actions and then realized that, yes, he had come right out in the open and threatened an innocent woman. What in the world was wrong with him? He had just crossed a red line without any cause or justification to do so other than he disliked Nikki on a personal level. “I'm sorry, I didn't mean...”

  Shocked and hurt that the Chief of Police would resort to threats, Nikki dashed away to her SUV. “Jerk,” Hawk snapped at Chief Daily and brushed past him with a hard shoulder.

  “I didn't mean...” Chief Daily tried again to explain and then fell silent. Ashamed of his actions, he watched Hawk reach Nikki just as the woman began backing down the driveway. Ignoring Hawk, Nikki backed onto the grass in order to avoid Hawk's jeep, eased out onto the road, and pulled away.

  “Nikki!” Hawk yelled, throwing his arms up into the air. Looking back at Chief Daily he shook his head. “What's wrong with you? Why did you threaten her?” he yelled. “We both know she didn't have anything to do what that man's death.”

  With tears in her eyes, Nikki set a route toward the Canadian border. “Maybe I will leave town,” she whispered to herself. “Maybe I'm not meant to be here after all. I can always go back to Atlanta and get my old job.”

  Chapter Six

  Without any real reasoning to her actions, Nikki stopped at the lodge before driving farther north to the Canadian border. Sure, she was taking a risky chance, but so what? Who at the lodge knew her? The local paper had printed her name in the story about the mayor, but her face had not been posted. Even if the owners of the lodge had read the story about her—which they probably did—they didn't know her face unless they’d paid a visit to her store, which, Nikki thought, parking in front of the lobby, wasn't likely. Besides, if her gut was right, the Snowfields were the type of people to make casual visits into town. The lodge required a great deal of work, maintenance, and management, which they handled all on their own.

  Examining the front lobby, Nikki drew in a deep breath. The land, the lobby, the air, were clean, fresh and beautiful. The thought of sitting in standstill traffic in Atlanta almost caused an ulcer to form in her stomach. Gripping her purse, she walked up to the front door of the lobby, pulled it open, stepped inside, and was immediately struck by a strange and wonderful rustic beauty. “Help you?” a cold voice asked.

  Putting a friendly smile on her face, Nikki walked up to the front counter. “I want a room, please,” she told the young man, who didn't appear mentally ill at all.

  “We're not renting out rooms right now. Rooms are all booked because a group is arriving in a few days,” the young man told Nikki.

  Nikki scanned the young man's gray t-shirt and then looked back up to his face. She lost her smile. It was time to get down to the nitty-gritty. “Fine, I'm not here for a room. I'm here, Zach, to find out about you.”

  “How do you know my name?” Zach asked Nikki, narrowing his eyes and forcing his face to become cold and angry.

  “I thought you could barely speak?” she asked. “You seem to be speaking very clearly now. Detective Hawk might be interested in knowing you pulled the wool over his eyes. Maybe I will give him a call.”

  Zach stared at Nikki with hard eyes. “Who are you?” he demanded.

  “Who are you?” Nikki asked back, “and why are you pretending to be mentally ill in the eyes of the police? Earlier two women came in here, and you didn't act shy in front of them.”

  Zach thought back to Tori. Folding his arms, he tried to think. “I hate cops, okay? I've had my share of trouble with them in the past. My folks ditched me with my grandparents because they got tired of dealing with me. It's not much different here; earlier today a man was found dead in his room. What do my grandparents do? They tell me to act stupid because they don't want the police thinking I had anything to do with it. So I did what they asked me...maybe a little too good.”

  “Where are your grandparents now?” Nikki demanded.

  “The old woman is upstairs, and the old man is down by the lake doing something,” Zach explained. “Want me to go and get her?”

  “Why are you watching the front desk?” Nikki asked instead. “Are you waiting for someone, Zach?”

  Zach tensed. “What are you, a modern day Nancy Drew or something? The old woman ordered me to watch the lobby, okay? I'm told, and I quote, that I will 'earn my right to live here’ by pulling my own weight,” Zach finished in a disgusted voice.

  Nikki focused on Zach's eyes. The young man standing before her was bitter, angry, and a real pain to society, but he wasn't lying to her. And, Nikki concluded, he wasn't a killer, either. Sarcastic, yes. Disrespectful, yes. Bitter, yes...a killer, no. “I can run you through the system, but you can save us both a lot of time by telling me what you have on your record.”

  Zach shrugged his shoulders. “Few fights, got caught spray-painting a police car, broke a few windows, went for a few joy rides...nothing major.”

  “Maybe not to you,” Nikki pointed out.

  “Hey, lady, I was just having some fun,” Zach told Nikki, unfolding his arms. “Take a hike. I'm done talking to you.”

  “A man was found dead,” Nikki yanked Zach back into the conversation, “and that is very, very serious.”

  “I didn't kill the guy,” Zach told Nikki, staring at her with angry eyes, “I found the body, but I didn't kill him.”

  “You found the body?” Nikki asked.

  Zach kicked himself for spilling the beans. “Yeah...yeah, I found the body, okay? I know my grandparents told the police they did, but they lied. So go ahead and arrest us.”

  “Zach, what time did you find the body? Lis
ten to me, I'm not a cop. I'm a private detective. I'm not interested in arresting anyone. I only want the truth,” Nikki confessed.

  Zach grinned. “A female detective...say, you're kind of a babe, too and—”

  Nikki leaned across the counter and slapped Zach across his face. “I'm not a babe. You will show respect, or next time I'll knock you cold.”

  Zach stumbled backward. No one had ever slapped him in the face before. Startled and shocked, he stared at Nikki's angry face. And then he simply felt ashamed of his actions. Maybe acting like a jerk all the time wasn't the key. “I found the body around nine,” he told Nikki, rubbing his cheek. “The guy asked for a wake-up call at that time. When he didn't pick up the phone in his room, I went and knocked on his door.”

  “Keep going.”

  “The door to the room wasn't locked. It was open, but barely. I didn't care. I knocked on the door and then pushed it open,” Zach explained. “I didn't tell the cops this. They think the old man found the guy dead after taking towels to the room.”

  “You open the door and walk in, then what?” Nikki asked.

  “I see the guy lying on the bed, so I tell him who I am,” Zach explained. “The guy didn't answer, so I walked over to the bed and shook his leg, thinking he was passed out or something...long story short, the guy was dead. I didn't hang around. I ran and got the old man.”

  Nikki considered Zach's story. There was something Zach was hiding from her, something very important. “What about the suitcase?”

  Nikki saw Zach tense up again. “Hey, I didn't touch anything in that guy's room,” he said in a defensive tone. “I got the old man and didn't step foot back in the room.”

  Nikki took her eyes away from Zach and studied the front lobby. “Okay, Zach, thank you for the information. I'm leaving now. You can tell the cops I came by, and your grandparents as well if you—”

  “Listen, lady,” Zach said, watching his tone, “my grandparents couldn’t care less about me, okay? I'm here because it was either them or jail. I'm not their answering service. If you want to come by later and talk with them, that's your business. And as far as the cops go, they can go stand in traffic.”

  “Okay,” Nikki told Zach as she walked to the lobby door. Pausing, she turned and faced him. “I knew a kid once who had great potential but also had a huge chip on his shoulder. He ended up going to prison for robbing a bank because he got caught up with the wrong people.”

  “So?” Zach asked.

  “Let me finish,” Nikki told Zach. “While he was in prison, he was stabbed in the back. My friend almost died. It took him a while to realize that the world wasn't against him and that every bad choice he made was his own fault. So he stopped blaming other people and got his life back on track. After getting out of prison he went back to school, and then college, and today he's a school teacher.”

  “Aw, gee, how nice,” Zach replied. Shaking his head, he looked down at his feet. “Hey, lady, I'm sorry, I get what you mean. I know I made some bad choices, I get that, but people just won't stop riding my back all the time. I'm just a failure in their eyes, someone to tolerate because I'm family.”

  “Can I ask you a question?”

  “Yeah, what is it?” Zach looked at Nikki.

  “What do you want to do with your life?”

  Zach shrugged his shoulders. “I'm pretty good at fixing cars, you know. My old man is a mechanic. I'm not too bad with a hammer and nail, either.”

  “Great,” Nikki said, “you have skills then. But Zach, what you do with your skills is up to you. Honey, this world will chew you up alive and spit you out. I know it's hard, and I know that sometimes the choices we make can harm our future. But you can overcome them if you want—the choice is yours. But remember, before you can earn respect from other people, you have to respect yourself first. Okay?”

  “A nobody like me?” Zach asked. “I'm supposed to respect a loser?”

  “You're not a loser,” Nikki promised Zach. “I need to go, but we'll see each other again. I...Zach, I know you're hiding something, and in time I hope you tell me what you're hiding. But I'm not going to force you. When you begin to respect yourself and want to change, you will tell me what you're hiding. Goodbye.”

  Nikki left Zach feeling like a deer caught in a pair of headlights. In all truth, she realized, Zach wasn't a horrible person, not as horrible as she had first thought. Misguided, angry, upset, hurt, confused...yes, but definitely not a killer. Walking to her SUV, she paused. In the distance she saw an old man walking up toward the lodge with a shovel in his hand. The old man was too far away to recognize Nikki. Quickly, Nikki jumped into her SUV and pulled away, hoping to appear inconspicuous.

  “Next stop, the Canadian border,” she said, pulling onto the two-lane back road and driving north. Driving past beautiful landscape, she thought about Zach and the suitcase. “If there was money in the suitcase...” Nikki struggled to put the case together in her mind.

  Chapter Seven

  Nikki eased to a stop in front of a run-down wooden shack acting as a border station. The shack was severely waterlogged and no bigger than a closet. Nikki didn't even spot a crossing pole. Instead, as she sat waiting in her SUV, she saw a man who had to be older than time walk out of the shack and wave one hand at her to drive forward while holding a clipboard in his other hand. Nikki nodded her head and eased her SUV forward. Rolling down her driver's side window, she smiled at the old man who was wearing a wrinkled border patrol uniform. “Hi,” she said in a cheerful voice.

  “Driver's license,” the old man said in a bored tone, “and reason for visit.”

  “Oh, I'm not going into Canada,” Nikki said keeping her smile, “I'm out sightseeing and wanted to see where this road led to.”

  “Into Canada,” the old man said looking down at Nikki. “You can turn around.”

  “Oh, sure,” Nikki smiled and then pretended to look around. “You must get lonely being out here by yourself. My, it's a long way from town.”

  “I read,” the old man answered Nikki in a flat voice. “Have a nice day.”

  “Are you here all the time?” Nikki asked quickly.

  “Each shift consists of twelve hours. I work from noon to midnight and then I go home.”

  “Who works from midnight to noon?” Nikki asked. “Whoever it is, he or she must be a real night owl.”

  The old man gave Nikki a bored face. “My brother works from midnight to noon. We're both retired.”

  “Wow,” Nikki said pretending to be interested. “You guys must be something special. I mean, the only thing stopping anyone from going into Canada is you.”

  “Ma’am,” the old man said, growing impatient, “there are so many back roads around here, anyone could sneak across the border if they wanted.”

  “Back roads?” Nikki asked. “I didn't spot any back roads.”

  “That's because you didn't look,” the old man scolded Nikki. “If you know where to look, you'll find one or two of them. Now, good day to you.”

  Nikki watched the old man return to his shack. “Back roads,” Nikki whispered, backing up and driving back toward town. Slowing down the SUV she studied each side of the road, trying to spot any sign of a back road which was probably nothing more than an illegal dirt trail. But when she reached the lodge, Nikki gave up. Driving past the lodge she debated whether to drive back to town or turn around. “It's getting late. I'll search again tomorrow,” Nikki promised.

  Driving back to her store, she saw Hawk's jeep parked out front. Shaking her head, she put on a brave face and walked inside. Lidia and Tori were closing down the store. Tori was sweeping and cleaning. Lidia was handling the paperwork. Hawk was leaning against the front counter. When he saw Nikki he leaned up. “Where did you go?” he asked in a caring voice.

  “I took a ride,” Nikki replied, smiling at Tori and waving a hand at Lidia, who poked her head out of the back office. “What do you want?”

  “Dinner,” Hawk said, “I was thinking we coul
d eat at the Jukebox, grab a burger and a milkshake and just talk. And before you say no, let me say this. I know what Pop did was wrong, and I sure gave him a chewing for it, too. He's promised to back off and let you breathe. I have some information about the case I want to go over with you. I didn't find anything on our John Doe, but I did find something on the stolen BMW.”

  Nikki studied Hawk's sincere face. It wasn't Hawk she was mad at, after all. And wasn't the man standing before her supposed to be her partner on the case? “Okay,” Nikki offered Hawk a smile as a peace offering. “I could go for a burger and a milkshake. Tori, would you like to come? Lidia, you can go ask Herbert to meet us at the Jukebox,” she called to the back office.

  “I can't,” Tori apologized, holding a broom in her hand. “My aunt will be expecting me.”

  Hawk looked at Tori and scratched the back of his head and wondered how such a pretty young lady could appear so miserable. “You're more than welcome to join us,” he told Tori. “My treat.”

  “Oh, no really, thanks, but my aunt...” Tori apologized and hurried back to her chores.

  Nikki watched Tori sweep around the shelves and front counter. “She's so sweet,” she told Hawk. “Someday I'm going to have to meet this aunt of hers.”

  Lidia walked out of the back office with the green bank deposit bag. “Not bad,” she told Nikki, handing her the deposit bag. “Everyone raved over your peppermint chocolate. We're sold out.”

  “I sold a lot, too, when you and Tori went...on that errand,” Nikki quickly caught herself. “I'll make more tonight. I'll need to run by the grocery store and get more supplies first. Tori, honey, would you like to come over and help me make fudge tonight?”

  Tori stopped sweeping. Nikki was so kind to her, and the thought of being crammed under her aunt's thumb all night saddened her. “I...well, sure, okay,” she said and smiled. “I can come over if you would like. I have to cook my aunt's dinner, but after that, I will be free.”