Murder By Lime: A Key West Culinary Cozy - Book 4 Read online

  At the directive, Drew gunned the engine of the small boat and leaped ahead of the Coast Guard vessel. Whatever was in the bundle that he’d brought up out of the ocean was tossed overboard, disappearing in his wake.

  “Mark it,” the crew member who was piloting ordered, and the coordinates where the bundle had been dropped were transmitted to another boat that would come out with divers to search for whatever had been discarded.

  The Coast Guard was bearing down hard on the smaller boat when suddenly, there was a loud pop and smoke began billowing out of the engine room. Crew members grabbed fire extinguishers and ran as Tiara looked up at Detective Cortland, her eyes wide with fear.

  **

  “So they didn’t catch him?” Marilyn asked, when Tiara told her the harrowing tale of her terrifying boat ride. The Coast Guard vessel had been so badly in need of repair that another boat had to come out to tow it in. Meanwhile, Drew had escaped.

  “No,” Tiara shook her head. “But they did recover quite a bit of cocaine that he had tossed overboard.”

  “I wonder where he went,” Marilyn worried, thinking that her daughter might be in danger with a drug dealer and murderer on the loose.

  “Well, he couldn’t have gone too far with a boat that size, even if he was carrying extra fuel,” her daughter replied realistically. “I’m not a criminal, but I think if I were him, I’d want to get as far away from the scene of the crime as possible…so you can stop worrying about me now, Mom,” she said, patting her mother’s arm.

  “You know me too well,” Marilyn smiled at her daughter, thankful that the ugly charges against her had been dropped.

  “Well enough to know that you’re probably seriously craving a piece of Key Lime pie and a cup of coffee right now,” Tiara teased.

  “Right as usual,” her stomach growled as though on cue, and mother and daughter headed to the kitchen.

  Chapter 14

  Having a normal work day, where her biggest concern was whether or not she was going to run out of pie before the end of the day, was a huge relief to Marilyn. She and Kelcie had baked with glorious abandon, even coming up with a new treat – Key Lime Shooters, served in a white chocolate cup. The bite-sized desserts flew out the door by the dozen, and people came in just because they’d seen the description of the decadent treat written on the Daily Specials chalkboard out front.

  Tiara had spent most of her day on the computer at the front counter, when there weren’t customers to deal with, crunching numbers and seeing how badly the lime shortage and the drama caused by Drew the Drug Dealer had affected their bottom line. She was pleased to report that, despite the challenges they had faced, their numbers hadn’t fallen significantly at all, and they were well on their way to being able to hire more employees and potentially open up a new location within the next year.

  Marilyn had given her daughter a bear hug when she shared the good news about the shop’s success, and made plans to celebrate with pizza and a movie later that evening. Tiara came back to the kitchen, phone in hand, with a strange look on her face toward the end of the day.

  “Hey, Mom, do you mind if I take off a little bit early today? I’m really tired and want to get some rest before we hang out tonight,” she said, running a hand through her hair.

  “Sure, honey, Kelcie and I can close up. You go ahead and get some rest. Everything okay?” she asked, watching her daughter closely.

  “Yeah, I’m fine, just tired,” Tiara responded, untying her apron.

  **

  Marilyn stopped at the market on her way home to pick up a bottle of cabernet to enjoy with her pizza and movie later. It had been a long couple of weeks, and both she and Tiara were ready to just kick back and relax. Her daughter had been glad to move back into her apartment, despite her mother’s entreaties to stay, so this would be their first hang-out evening in a while. Fluffy greeted her at the door and twined around her ankles, purring, as she made her way to the kitchen to set the bottle of wine on the counter. Passing by the breakfast bar, her peripheral vision picked up on something in the back yard that caught her attention. Moving to the sliding doors that led to the patio, she looked out and saw a bunch of empty beer cans littering her oasis from the world and frowned.

  “What the heck went on out here?” she wondered, looking for anything else that might be out of place.

  “I saw him,” Tim Eckels timid, toneless voice came through the trees as he peered at her from the other side.

  Marilyn jumped, hating the uncanny way that the creepy neighbor was always able to startle her. Sighing, because she disliked interacting with him, but needing to know what he meant, she bit the bullet and asked.

  “Who did you see, Tim? Do you know who did this?” she asked, seeing the vague shape of the dumpy little man between the trees. She gazed down at the trash on the patio, shaking her head.

  “It was a guy…a strong, tanned guy.” Marilyn could just picture him blinking rapidly behind his coke-bottle glasses as he imparted what, to him, seemed to be relevant information.

  “Well, that describes practically every man on the island, Tim, that’s not too terribly helpful,” she retorted, wishing she’d never acknowledged the little gnome.

  “It was the guy from the news,” was the bland response.

  Marilyn stepped closer to the tree line, her heart leaping to her throat.

  “What do you mean it was the guy from the news?” she asked, fear tickling the base of her spine.

  “The drug guy. He was here until your daughter came home, then they left,” Tim said, shuffling away from the trees, clearly done with the conversation.

  “Tim! Wait! Where did they go? What time did they leave?” Marilyn asked, her heart pounding. “Tim!” she shouted again, receiving only the fading shuffling sound of his feet as her response.

  Dialing Tiara’s number, she ran back into the house. When she received no answer, she called one of the roommates, who said that they hadn’t seen her since she left for work that morning. Her final call was to Detective Bernard Cortland.

  “Bernard, he has my baby.”

  **

  The detective paced in Marilyn’s living room, convinced that she was not going to react well to what he had to say, but knowing that it needed to be said.

  “Marilyn, did you ever consider the possibility that Tiara may have gone with him voluntarily?” he asked, bracing himself for the storm.

  “Absolutely not!” she exclaimed, her face reddening with anger. “My daughter is an educated, intelligent young woman with a keen sense of right and wrong. There’s no way that she’d willing keep company with a known drug dealer and murderer.”

  Bernard raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture. “Look, I know that she’s an upstanding, hard-working young lady. All I’m saying is that sometimes career criminals are quite skilled in seeming innocent and victimized. They’re usually excellent liars, and this guy may have fed your daughter some line about how he’d been set up, and he knows who the real killer is, and that if she really cared about him, she’d help him find the culprit,” he explained calmly.

  “Oh,” Marilyn calmed down a bit, thinking. “I never thought of that,” she admitted. “But surely Tiara is far too smart to fall for such nonsense.”

  The detective shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. She liked him. Usually when you like someone, you try to believe the best about them,” he pointed out, gazing at her oddly.

  “True,” she nodded, lost in thought. “So what do we do?”

  “You sit right here and wait to see if she texts, calls or comes home,” he instructed. “I’m going to head to the marina to see if any rented boats have gotten underway in the last couple of hours. Most of them have trackers on them, so if he took her out on one, it shouldn’t be too hard to find.”

  “Wait…why can’t I go with you,” Marilyn pleaded. “I don’t want to just sit her doing nothing, I’ll drive myself crazy.”

  Bernard sighed inwardly. “Because,” he began with ultimate
patience. “Sometimes when a criminal is trying to gain confidence, he’ll “prove” his trustworthiness by allowing them to stop by home to pick up some things. You need to be here to stall them if that happens. You have my number, call me the minute that they arrive,” he counseled, hoping she’d buy into his somewhat lame explanation.

  “Oh, okay,” Marilyn nodded. “But I can’t say that he’ll still be in one piece by the time you get here,” she seethed.

  “Take a breath, Marilyn. I really don’t want to have to take two people to jail this evening instead of one,” he gave her a pointed look. She stared right back at him, ready to do battle if he continued on the subject. “I’m heading out,” he finally said. “Let me know if you hear anything.”

  “I will,” she promised grimly, walking him to the door.

  Chapter 15

  Tiara felt more than a little guilty for having fibbed to her mother so that she could leave work early. While it was true that she was tired after the events of the past couple of weeks, the real reason that she was leaving the shop was because she’d received a series of texts from Drew, explaining that he had been framed, but that he knew who the real culprits were and that he needed her help in gathering the evidence to give to the authorities so that he’d be exonerated. She hadn’t believed him at first, her trust had taken more than its share of hard knocks, but the more he pleaded, the easier it was to believe that the sweet, serene yoga instructor that she knew couldn’t possibly be a drug dealer and murderer.

  The naïve young woman agreed to meet the fugitive at her mother’s house, because she knew that it would be quite a while before the shop was closed, so there’d be no danger of Marilyn appearing out of the blue. Somehow she didn’t think her mother would be quite as willing to listen and understand Drew’s plight. When Tiara arrived, she found the depressed yoga instructor camped out on a lounge chair in the back yard, drinking can after can of cheap beer.

  “Here, I saved one for you,” he said quietly, offering her an already opened can.

  The brew may have been cheap, but it was ice cold, and she gulped it down gratefully, thinking that it tasted sort of funny. Drew began telling Tiara his theory as to what had happened on his boat, and how the drugs had gotten into her apartment, but she found that she was having a difficult time concentrating. She felt dizzy and lightheaded, and there were times that the ground seemed to tilt beneath her, rocking this way and that.

  “I don’t feel very well,” she murmured, holding her head in both hands because it felt as though it might drift away if she didn’t.

  “Right on schedule,” Drew grinned, looking at his watch.

  A moment of realization dawned upon the entirely-too-trusting girl. “You drugged me. You…awful…human…being,” her speech slowed and slurred. “I trusted you…” she mumbled, as she succumbed to whatever it was that he’d put in her beer, and darkness overtook her.

  Wasting no time, Drew scooped Tiara up into his arms and carried her out to his car, pretending to kiss her in case any of the neighbors happened to be looking out the window. Bundling her into the front seat, and putting on her seatbelt to keep her sitting upright, he drove away at a pace that was slow enough to not arouse suspicion, and headed for the marina.

  **

  Detective Bernard Cortland had called ahead to the Coast Guard, who had a boat ready and waiting by the time he arrived at the marina. Records kept at the port indicated that a man fitting the description of the fugitive had rented a small boat nearly half an hour ago. Drew wasn’t just being sought in connection with the murder of Pedro, he also was wanted on federal drug charges because the bundle that he had thrown overboard while being chased by the Coast Guard a few days ago had been recovered, and contained several kilos of cocaine. The rented boat’s onboard tracking device indicated that the yoga instructor was headed for the same spot at which he’d been diving when they’d caught up with him last time, and they immediately set a course to pursue. They’d go in stealthy this time, without lights, making it difficult to spot them in the falling dusk.

  **

  Marilyn was worried and frustrated beyond belief, and nearly jumped out of her skin when the trees separating her yard from Tim’s rustled abruptly and her neighbor stepped through. Annoyed, she didn’t pause in her task of picking up the beer cans that Drew had discarded, but merely addressed the irritating man without bothering to look at him.

  “What is it now, Tim?” she demanded, too weary for diplomacy.

  “You’ll probably want this,” he said in his toneless manner. She looked up to see him holding something out to her, and her heart leaped when she saw what it was.

  “Where did you get this?” she asked, snatching Tiara’s cell phone from his limp, fleshy hand.

  “He threw it in the trees when they left,” he shrugged. “I tried to see if there were any good games on there, but she has a password, so I couldn’t get in.” He turned around and headed for home.

  “Tim…wait!” Marilyn exclaimed. “Did you see Tiara? How…how was she?” she asked, not certain that she wanted to hear the answer.

  “They were kissing,” he said flatly, making a face as though the thought disgusted him.

  “Kissing?” she repeated, shocked. She didn’t even want to consider the possibility that Bernard might have been correct and that Tiara had gone with Drew willingly.

  “Kissing,” he said again, stepping back through the trees and into his own yard.

  **

  Drew surged through the water at full throttle, not wanting to waste any time. He still had a shipment to pick up from Pedro’s competitor, the man who had hired him to kill the unsuspecting drug runner. He’d put enough of the tranquilizer into Tiara’s drink that she should be out of it for another hour. He thought about killing her, but then he’d have to deal with the logistics of disposing of her body and avoiding getting caught with a corpse, so he figured he’d avoid it if he could. Besides, she was a sweet kid, trusting, and he felt a bit of remorse at having duped her for so long.

  His plan was to dive down for the shipment, which would be hidden under a tunnel of coral like the others had been, retrieve it, stash it in the boat, and dump Tiara on a section of beach, where she’d wake up not knowing what had happened or how she’d gotten there. The police would focus on her and her safety, and by the time they thought to come looking for him, he’d be safely on his way out of the country with enough drugs to finance the entire trip and then some. The former yoga instructor was really looking forward to his early retirement in South America. He had already selected the town that he was going to live in…one where almost no one would bat an eye at the arrival of an American who had no need to work for a living.

  Dropping anchor, he geared up and slipped nearly silently over the side of the boat into the dark water, flashlight beaming from a band on his forehead. Drew swam through the depths, well-practiced at seeking out the hiding spot after dark, finding the package that he was looking for almost immediately. Surfacing with the bundle in hand, he heard the low rumble of what could only be a boat motor, but, eyes accustomed to the flashlight, he couldn’t see well enough to pinpoint the source of the sound. He reasoned that it couldn’t be very close if he couldn’t see it, so he wouldn’t worry about it. Extinguishing the head lamp, he pushed the latest batch of cocaine up the ladder ahead of him and flopped it over the side, lowering himself down after it. The sound of a motor loomed closer, and as his eyes adjusted to the growing darkness around him, his jaw set as he recognized the outline of a Coast Guard recovery boat.

  Moving more quickly now, he pulled up the anchor, which made quite a racket in the evening’s twilight. Once he’d stashed it, he eased the throttle forward, planning to slip quietly away. If they could run without lights, so could he. Pleased with himself for his sneaky plan, Drew piloted the small boat away from the site, smirking, until a swath of light from the Coast Guard’s search beacon swept over him, highlighting him and his craft with the intensity of the midday s
un. A voice came via bullhorn, ordered him to drop anchor and prepare to be boarded. The fugitive shook his head, determined. He’d eluded them once, there was no reason that he couldn’t do it again.

  Tiara began to stir in the passenger seat beside him, groaning and waking up ahead of schedule. He hadn’t bothered to bind her wrists or ankles, thinking that he’d have plenty of time to drop her off on a deserted stretch of beach before she woke up.

  “What’s happening?” she mumbled as the boat lurched forward and began turning in a long arc.

  “Stay seated and keep your mouth shut and no one will get hurt,” Drew growled, trying to concentrate on his driving. The bow of the small craft leaped and slapped against the waves, jolting them in their seats, and the salt spray on her face brought Tiara fully to consciousness.

  “Where are we? What’s going on?” she demanded, alarmed, and more than a little put out about the way that he’d spoken to her.

  “I said shut up, princess, and I meant it,” he glared at her briefly before turning his full attention back to the boat’s controls.

  Tiara shielded her eyes with her hands and tried to see the boat behind them that was bathing them in the bright light. Her head throbbed abominably, and she felt sick to her stomach from being tossed about in the tiny craft. The Coast Guard issued another order for Drew to drop anchor and prepare to be boarded, giving the frightened young woman a glimmer of hope, as she realized that the “good guys” were on their tail. Help was on the way!

  “You drugged me,” she said, remembering.

  “Shut up,” Drew barked, not looking at her.

  “I think I’m going to be sick,” she faked a greater degree of nausea than she was currently feeling, a plan in mind.

  The fugitive looked at her with utter disgust and impatience. “Get to the side, I don’t want that in here,” he ordered.