Death by Lime: A Key West Culinary Cozy - Book 5 Read online

  Much faster than she expected, her doorbell rang, and, looking carefully out of the peephole, she was relieved to see the delivery guy standing there with a Ming Ming bag. The tall, slender, bespectacled young man looked as though he was blushing slightly when she opened the door.

  “Wow, am I glad to see you,” she smiled with relief, eyeing the bag that he held.

  “I get that a lot,” the young man joked, handing her the bag, which seemed rather heavy for just a bucket of Lo Mein. His crooked grin was endearing, and Kelcie found herself hoping that the traces of her tears didn’t show, but suspected that her red, swollen eyes probably told the tale.

  “I bet. How much do I owe you?” she asked, grabbing her purse from a table behind the door.

  “Oh, uh, nothing. You were actually our 100,000th customer, so your order is free,” he shrugged with another smile. “Oh, and we threw in some free eggrolls and dessert puffs too.”

  “Wow, that’s amazing,” Kelcie laughed, surprised. “Now if I only had some ice cream to drown my sorrows in, life would be complete.”

  “Ice cream does solve most of life’s problems,” he nodded sagely.

  “Or at least makes us forget about them for a while,” she agreed. “Thanks so much,” she said, holding up the bag and reaching for the door knob.

  “You’re very welcome. Have a good night,” he waved awkwardly.

  “Thanks, you too.” Kelcie closed the door and took her dinner directly to the coffee table. She was even going to indulge in the pretense of being a responsible adult for tonight. She was going to eat right from the carton with the plastic fork that was provided, and put a bag underneath to catch any soy sauce that might try to leak out of the bottom once she doused the noodles. Grabbing another beer from the fridge, she popped the DVD into the player, turned off the lights for better visual effect, (and because sitting by herself in the dark seemed somehow appropriate), digging into her Chinese feast, lit only by the glow of the Bourne Identity.

  The remnants of her dinner had been stowed in the refrigerator, and Kelcie was halfway through her second Bourne movie, when the doorbell rang. She sighed, thinking that it was most likely Thomas, coming back to apologize, and wrestled with the question of whether or not she actually wanted to get up off of the couch and deal with him. What nerve he must have, storming out and then coming over to talk at this hour. She ultimately decided to at least fake being an adult by letting him have his say before she sent him packing. Once he’d said those horrible things and left, she realized, sadly, that she couldn’t be with someone who viewed her as untrustworthy. She just didn’t need that kind of drama in her life, along with everything else that was going on.

  Following Detective Cortland’s instructions and looking out of the peephole before opening the door, Kelcie was a bit baffled when she didn’t see anyone outside. Was Thomas trying to scare her? If he was, she had a few words to say to him, and flung open the door, ready to unleash her wrath. There was a plastic grocery bag on her doorstep, and she viewed it with suspicion. Looking around, she saw no one, and wondered who could have rung the bell. With the toe of her flip flop, she moved aside the top of the plastic bag to see what was inside, trembling a bit when she saw that it was a carton of ice cream. Had her stalker been hiding in the bushes when the Chinese food was delivered? If so, was he there still? Kelcie shuddered, reached down and picked up the bag in a manner that suggested it contained a dead animal rather than a dairy treat, and quickly closed and locked her door.

  Trying desperately to be rational and to settle down her racing pulse, she tried to think of all innocent possibilities before leaping to the conclusion that her stalker had been and currently may still be camped out in the bushes surrounding her windows. Maybe Thomas had felt bad about the way that he had treated her and decided to make it up to her with her favorite dessert. Maybe Tiara and Marilyn had just wanted her to feel loved after she texted them about the breakup. Or, maybe…this was an escalation. Taking matters into her own hands, Kelcie texted Marilyn, Tiara and Thomas, thanking them for the ice cream. Marilyn and Tiara responded immediately with questions, so it clearly hadn’t been from them, and Thomas’s message bounced back, indicating that her access to him had been blocked. Sighing, the sad and worried young woman picked up the phone and dialed Bernard Cortland’s number.

  Chapter 4

  “So, what are you going to do?” Marilyn asked, her maternal instincts making her want to take Kelcie under her wing.

  “I talked to the landlord and he said there’s no way that he’ll take out the bushes around my windows. He also hinted that he really didn’t appreciate having a tenant with so much drama going on in her life, so I gave him notice and he’s letting me out of my lease with no penalty.”

  “Well, how very magnanimous of him,” Tiara drawled sarcastically.

  “Yeah, I was surprised that he agreed to it. He’s even giving me back my security deposit, so, he may be rude and unpleasant, but at least in this respect, he’s being fair,” Kelcie shrugged, trying to be positive.

  “So, where are you going to go?” Marilyn asked, worried. Kelcie was more than an employee to her, she’d become like family.

  “I found an attic apartment just a few blocks from here, so I won’t have to walk as far to get home.”

  “Well, that’s good, but we’re still going to be accompanying you until this mess is resolved,” she answered firmly.

  “I know…and thanks,” Kelcie smiled weakly.

  “Have you heard from Thomas?” her boss asked.

  “He blocked my number,” she murmured.

  “Good riddance,” Tiara snorted. Her mother gave her a reproving look.

  “Let’s try to be a bit sensitive, shall we?” Marilyn suggested, eyeing her daughter pointedly.

  “No, I’m serious. He was a jerk, Kelcie deserves much better,” she insisted, crossing her arms and giving her mother a challenging glare.

  “So when are you moving?” Marilyn changed the subject, deciding to let Tiara’s lack of diplomacy pass.

  “If I can have this Sunday off, my friend Camden will be able to help me move. One of his dad’s companies has big trucks, so we’ll be able to get all of my stuff to the new place in one trip. Will you two be able to handle the store without me?” she asked.

  “We’ll manage, sweetie,” Marilyn assured her. “We limped along with just the two of us before we hired you, so we’ll just step up our game for a day. Bring your friend over for a piece of pie when you two are done.”

  “Okay, great,” Kelsie nodded gratefully.

  “Is that the hot tennis guy from the country club?” Tiara asked, waggling her eyebrows.

  The young woman blushed. “Yeah, that’s him. We used to date, but we’re just friends now,” she explained.

  “You never know, history could repeat itself…” Marilyn’s daughter mused, teasing.

  “He’s my mover, that’s all there is to it,” Kelcie insisted.

  **

  “Everything goes?” tall, athletic Camden Reynolds asked, holding a lamp in one hand and a full length mirror in the other.

  “Everything goes,” Kelcie confirmed, following him out the door of her old place, toting two moving boxes, one stacked on top of the other. They both stopped short when they saw a man standing, hands on hips, next to the moving truck.

  “Thomas,” Kelcie said, surprised. “What are you doing here?”

  “I could ask you the same thing,” he snarled, staring hard at Camden. “Who’s he?” he jerked his head in her helper’s direction.

  “Camden Reynolds,” Cam said, setting down his items and offering his hand.

  Thomas stared coldly at the proferred hand as if it were a snake, and glanced back at Kelcie, not shaking it.

  “Cam, this is Thomas,” she explained, humiliated by her former boyfriend’s rudeness.

  “Ah,” Camden replied, dropping his hand. “Now I understand.” He picked up the lamp and mirror, stepped around Thomas and contin
ued to the moving truck without another word.

  “What do you want Thomas?” Kelcie asked, trying hard to keep her voice from trembling.

  “Well, I had planned on coming over to talk to you about how things ended between us, but I see you’ve obviously already gotten past it,” he replied nastily, cutting his eyes toward Cam as he walked back into the apartment, ignoring the couple and grabbing more furniture and boxes. “Bad choice, the second time around is never the same.”

  “Well, I guess you’ll never know,” she shot back, done with his rudeness. Kelcie tried to step around him to take her boxes to the truck and he grabbed her arm.

  “You think that pretty boy is gonna make you happy?” he hissed in her face, so close that she could smell the alcohol on his breath.

  “Let me go!” she demanded, dropping her boxes and trying to wrench away, but his fingers were like a vise on her bicep.

  “Hey, what’s going on out here?” Camden quickly set down the club chair that he was carrying and rushed to Kelcie’s side, staring at Thomas.

  Kelcie used the moment of distraction to wrench herself away from Thomas, rubbing her arm.

  “Nothing,” she said, eyes flashing at her aggressor. “Thomas was just leaving,” she said in a low voice.

  Camden stepped between the two, never taking his eyes off of Thomas, who had apparently decided that taking on the muscular athlete was probably not in his best interest.

  “I’m bout done with you anyways,” he said, making a disgusted sound.

  Chapter 5

  “I’m worried about Kelcie,” Marilyn confessed to Tiara as they sat in her office, planning out next steps for the expansion of her business.

  “Yeah, me too,” her daughter nodded. “I just wish that there was something that we could do. I hate feeling so helpless.”

  “That’s my girl, always wanting to save the world,” her mother teased. “But yeah, I know what you mean.”

  “At least now she lives closer, so that we can keep an eye on her more easily,” Tiara said, trying to be positive.

  “I can’t even imagine how scary it must be, knowing that someone is out there, watching, waiting. It’s like being hunted or something,” Marilyn shuddered.

  “Yeah, that has to be awful. But really, we’re doing everything that we possibly can to help, and she’s following Detective Cortland’s instructions to the letter,” her daughter pointed out.

  “I know, I just want her to be safe and happy.”

  “Yeah, me too,” Tiara nodded. “Now, back to business, you need to decide whether you’re going to expand this space, or open an additional store. I’ve outlined the pros and cons of each in this report,” she handed a binder to her mother. “I need you to review this information, and we need to make a decision on it by the end of the week so that I know which business plan to put into motion,” she directed.

  “Okay,” Marilyn nodded, thankful that her daughter was far more driven and focused than she’d ever been. “I’ll take a look at it this evening and we can talk about it. Do you want to come over for pizza and a movie?”

  “Will you blow off these reports and just hang out with me if I do?” Tiara raised her eyebrows, challenging her mother.

  “Nope, I’ll look at this, I promise. Believe me, I may not know that mechanics of how all of this works, but I’m just as excited as you are to move forward,” she assured her determined daughter.

  “Good. Then, yes, I’ll be over around seven. Do you promise to read this before I get there?” she asked, waving the binder.

  “Aye aye, ma’am,” her mother gave a mock salute, giving both of them a bit of comic relief.

  “Should we invite Kelcie?” Tiara suggested.

  “That’s a great idea. Hopefully it’ll take her mind off of things for a bit. She can either stay over or we can drive her home afterwards,” Marilyn agreed enthusiastically.

  “Perfect. I’m going to head up front to open up, and I believe you have some pies to make,” her daughter called out over her shoulder on the way out the door.

  “What would I do without you?” her mother replied, only half-teasing.

  “I ask myself that every day,” came the faint reply from the hallway.

  **

  “I really appreciate you inviting me,” Kelcie smiled shyly, sipping her wine. “I can’t remember the last time I had a girl’s night out.”

  “Well then, it’s been far too long,” Marilyn grinned. “We’re glad you could make it.”

  “Yeah, my social calendar looks pretty bleak these days,” she lamented, staring down into her wine glass.

  “Hey, better to be alone and happy than part of a miserable couple,” Tiara pointed out. “Trust me, I dated a drug-dealing psycho and barely made it out alive.”

  “Yeah, that was awful,” Kelcie nodded, remembering Tiara’s hair-raising experience. “At least Thomas is just a jerk, rather than a dangerous criminal.

  The three women all jumped when someone knocked loudly at the front door.

  “Did you order the pizza already, Mom?” Tiara asked, frowning.

  “No, not yet,” Marilyn replied, heading to the door. She opened it just in time to see Tim Eckels, her creepy neighbor, headed down the steps, and a box from a local florist on the doormat that had Kelcie’s name on it. “Hold it right there, Tim!” she commanded, causing the pasty, bulbous man with glasses and thinning sandy-colored hair to stop in his tracks.

  “Who…what?” he replied, turning around, startled.

  “Did you put this here?” she pointed at the box as her neighbor sidled closer to the porch.

  “Yes. They were at the bottom of the stairs and I thought that you might not see them if they stayed there, so I moved them up for you,” he blinked at her owlishly.

  “Who put them at the bottom of the stairs, Tim?” Marilyn asked suspiciously, moving to the top of the steps, hands on hips.

  “I…didn’t. I…don’t know,” he stammered.

  “What are you doing out here at this hour?” she demanded, eyes narrowed.

  “I…my…umm…cat, and…who’s Kelcie?” he asked, fidgeting.

  Kelcie and Tiara had appeared in the doorway, and were watching the exchange between Marilyn and the strange man.

  “I am,” Kelcie replied softly, her fear evident.

  Tim peered around Marilyn, his face lighting up when he saw the young woman. “Oh…you’re…very pretty,” he smiled a leering, lopsided grin that creeped all of them out.

  “Go home, Tim,” Marilyn said in a low voice that brooked no nonsense, and he obediently turned, heading down the sidewalk. “And next time you’re out looking for your cat, stay away from my front porch.”

  Tiara moved to pick up the box and her mother called out, stopping her. “No! Don’t touch that,” she instructed. “We don’t know what’s in it, and there may be fingerprints on it that Bernard can use to identify the stalker.”

  Her daughter raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Really, Mom? Isn’t it clear that we’ve just found our stalker?”

  Marilyn shook her head. “Tim? No. I know he’s creepy as can be, but I don’t think he was lying when he said that he just moved the box up onto the porch.”

  “No disrespect at all, Ms. Hayes, but it really seemed to me like he was lying too,” Kelcie said, wide-eyed as Tiara nodded her agreement, arms crossed.

  “Well, in any case, let’s just give the detective a call and let him see if there are any fingerprints on the box other than Tim’s,” she insisted. “We’ll go back inside and order the pizza, and Bernard can come over and see what he thinks. He may want to talk to Tim,” Marilyn walked back to the door, shooing the young women inside. She took a long look around before going in herself, wondering who might be lurking outside in the night.

  Chapter 6

  Detective Bernard Cortland had arrived at Marilyn’s cozy cottage just as the pizza delivery guy was leaving. He was briefed on what had happened, collected the box carefully, promising to talk to T
im Eckels, and left the women to enjoy their girl’s night. Kelcie selected the movie, choosing vintage James Bond, and the three of them indulged in wine, pizza and the suave exploits of Sean Connery. By the time the movie was over, Kelcie and Tiara were feeling a bit tipsy, and fortunately, both of them had brought overnight bags, just in case, so Marilyn insisted that they stay over. Tiara slept in her old room upstairs, and Kelcie was delighted to stay in the bed-and-breakfast-like guest room, with its floral bedspread and curtains, and deep, plush area rug. Fluffy, Tiara’s cat that had to stay at Marilyn’s because animals were forbidden at her apartment, kept their guest comfortable by snuggling up on a corner of the bed and purring herself to sleep.

  The three women sat, rather glassy-eyed, around the breakfast bar the next morning, consuming copious amounts of Costa Rican coffee with their slices of Key Lime pie. The two younger women headed out early because Tiara was teaching Yoga on the Beach, and Marilyn stayed behind to tidy up, agreeing to meet them at the shop after their class. They hadn’t been on the sidewalk for more than a couple of minutes before they heard a male voice calling out behind them.

  “I know who you are,” Tim Eckels muttered, a few paces behind them, startling the women.

  “What do you want?” Tiara whirled to face him, primed and ready to confront the strange little man.

  Tim kept his gaze on Kelcie, ignoring Tiara completely. “You took my job,” he said, his eyes dead behind his glasses.

  “What?” Kelcie responded, baffled.

  “You applied right before I did, and she picked you, even though I would’ve been better. You took my job,” he repeated in the same toneless manner.